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Mastin Bank,

Successor to JOHN J. MASTIN & CO.,

Cor. Main and Fourth Sts.,

KANSAS CITY, MO.

CASH CAPITAL, - $250,000

Does a General Banking business, buys and sells Foreign and Domestic Exchange, Gold, Silver, United
States Securities, City, County and Township Indebtedness; Receives Deposits, loans Money,
purchases Notes, and makes collections on all accessible points. Interest allowed
on time deposits. Also, having decided to give the

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SPECIAL ATTENTION,

AND TO EXTEND TO IT LIBERAL FINANCIAL AID,

THE BANKING HOUSE

has established and maintains an auxiliary office, under the management of its Secretary, M. R. PLATT,

KANSAS STOCK YARDS.

Through the Stock Yard office it is proposed to offer Banking Accommodations on liberal terms to

Stockmen of the West.

JOHN J. MASTIN,
W. R. BERNARD,

T. H. SWOPE,
M. R. PLATT,
GEO. HOLMES,

S. E. WARD,

B. L. RIGGINS,
THUS. CORRIGAN,
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51. CAMPBELL, ALBERT H. Pacific Wagon Roads. Letter from the Secretary of the Inte¬
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boards, cloth back. San Francisco, 1906. $15.00

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53. CARR, JOHN. Pioneer Days in California. Historical and Personal Sketches. Portrait.

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Cowan 106. Contains valuable material concerning the biographies of many of the early Californians,
'es; Judge Carr’s trip across the plains, Weaverville episodes, etc.

54. (CARRINGTON, Mrs. M. J.). Ab-Sa-Ra-Ka. Home of the Crows; being the Experi¬

ence of an Officer's Wife on the Plains, and Marking the Vicissitudes of Peril and Pleasure
during the Occupation of the New Route to Virginia City, Montana, 1866-7, and the Indian
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Original edition. Fine copy of a scarce factual work of first-hand experience in Montana in the 50’s and 60’s.

54a. CARVER, J. Travels through the Interior Parts of North-America, in the Years 1766,
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Cowan 107. "One of the best works upon the subject." Especially interesting for the author's own sketches
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56. (CATTLE). ADAMS, ANDY. The Log of a Cowboy. A Narrative of the Old Trail

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Caldwell, Idaho, 1940. $10.00

The brutal feud between the cattlemen and the homesteaders of Johnson County, Wyoming, which became
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Mesquite. Portraits, plates. 8vo, cloth. Boston, 1928. $12.50

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63- (CATTLE). COLLINGS, ELLSWORTH. The 101 Ranch. In Collaboration with Alma
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Stoops. 12mo, pictorial cloth. New York, (1927). $10.00

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67. (CATTLE) . HASTINGS, FRANK S. A Ranchman’s Recollections. An Autobiography,

in which Unfamiliar Facts Bearing upon the Cattle Industry in the Southwest and of the
American Packing Business are Stated, and Characteristic Incidents Recorded. Plates. 12mo,
cloth. Chicago, 1921. $15.00

68. (CATTLE). HUNTER, J. MARVIN. The Trail Drivers of Texas. Interesting Sketches

of Early Cowboys and their Experiences on the Range and on the Trail during the Days
that Tried Men’s Souls — True Narratives Related by Real Cow-Punchers and Men who
Fathered the Cattle Industry in Texas. Published under the direction of George W. Saunders.
Compiled and edited by J. Marvin Hunter. Portraits. 8vo, pictorial cloth. (San Antonio,
1920). $15.00

First edition, fine copy.

69. (CATTLE). HUNTER, J. MARVIN. The Trail Drivers of Texas. Interesting Sketches

of Early Cowboys and their Experiences on the Range and on the Trail during the Days
that Tried Men’s Souls — True Narratives Related by Real Cow-Punchers and Men who
Fathered the Cattle Industry in Texas. Published under the Direction of George W. Saunders.
Second Edition Revised. Portraits. 8vo, cloth, gilt title. Nashville, Tenn., 1925. $15.00

ORIGINAL EDITION OF McCOY’S "CATTLE TRADE”

70. J CATTLE). McCOY, JOSEPH G. Historic Sketches of the Cattle Trade of tl
ansb-southwest. Portraits, illus. 8vo, cloth, gilt spine. Kansas City, 1874.

First edition. Good and complete copy, with all the illustrations including the rare view fi

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72. (CATTLE). PAGE, ELIZABETH. Wild Horses and Gold. From Wyoming to the

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Edition. New York, (1932). $7.50

73. (CATTLE). LIFE OF TOM CANDY PONTING. An Autobiography. Introduction

and Notes by Herbert O. Brayer. Illustrations by David T. Vernon. Portraits, illus. 12mo,
half cloth. One of 500 numbered copies. Evanston, Illinois, 1952. $7.50

74. (CATTLE). RAINE, WILLIAM MacLEOD and WILL C. BARNES. Cattle. Plates.

8vo, cloth. New York, 1930. $7.50

75. (CATTLE). RIDINGS, SAM P. The Chisholm Trail. A History of the World’s Great¬

est Cattle Trail. Together with a Description of the Persons, a Narrative of the Events,
and Reminiscences Associated with the same. Folding map, portraits, illus. 8vo, pictorial’
cloth, gilt, d.-j. Guthrie, Oklahoma, (1936). $15.00

76. (CATTLE). ROLLINS, PHILIP ASHTON. Jinglebob. A True Story of a Real Cow¬
boy. Plates. 8vo, cloth, d.-j. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author to Charles P. Everitt
and from Charles P. Everitt to Frederick W. Skiff, with his bookplate. New York, 1927. $4.50

77. _ (CATTLE). ROLLINS, PHILIP ASHTON. The Cowboy. His Characteristics, His

Equipment, and His Part in the Development of the West. 8vo, cloth. New York 1922
First edition, now scarce. ’$10.00

. ROLLINS, PHILIP ASHTON. The Cowboy. An Unconventional History
of Civilization on the Old-Time Cattle Range. Revised and Enlarged Edition. Plates 8vo
cloth, d.-j. New York, 1936. $3 50

79. (CATTLE). SANDERS, ALVIN HOWARD. At the Sign of the Stock Yard Inn The

same being a True Account of how certain Great Achievements of the Past have been com¬
memorated and cleverly linked with the Present; together with Sundry Recollections inspired
by the Portraits at the Saddle and Sirloin Club. Color-frontispiece, plates. 12mo, half morocco
gilt spine. Chicago, 1915. nn

Very fine copy, awarded to a contestant in the 1925 Saddle and Sirloin Club Medal Essay Contest.

80. (CATTLE). SHAW, JAMES C North from Texas. Incidents in the Early Life of a

Range Cowman in Texas Dakota and Wyoming 1852- 1883. Edited by Herbert O. Brayer.
Illustrated by David T Vernon. Portraits, illus. 8vo, half cloth, gilt title on spine. One of
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roiore(dC^lI^l?mnEnh^,V’ H'VW>h‘S?Sj?g Smith' Illustrated by N. C. Wyeth.

Fl?st edition, and a^e® Spy h- NeW Y°rk’ 19°6’ <10.00

HISTORIC SKETCHES

CATTLE TRADE

or THE

WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

Bv JOSEPH G. McCOY,

THE PIONEER WESTERN CATTLE SHIPPER.

ILLUSTRATED BY PROF. HENRY WORRALL, TOPEKA, ***
ENGRAVED BY BAKER & CO., CHICAGO, ILL.
BLECTROTYPED BY J. T. RETON k CO., KANSAS CITY, HO.

PUBLISHED BY

RAMSEY, MILLETT & HUDSON, KANSAS CITY, MO.,

PRINTERS, BINDERS, ENGRAVERS, LITHOGRAPHERS k STATIONERS.

PREFACE.

The aim and purpose of the Author in publishing this
work is to convey in simple, unpretentious language, practi¬
cal and correct information upon the opening, development,
and present status of the Live Stock Trade of the great
New West; and to put into existence, he believes, the first
and only work devoted exclusively to a plain exposition
of the manner of growing and marketing common live
stock, and the modes of preparation of the various articles
of Product, made therefrom ; with brief historic sketches of
leading and characteristic men of the present day engaged
in the business.

No claim or pretence whatever is made to literary
merit, or even correct language and syntax. It has been
the Author’s lot in his brief life, to do, to act, and not to
write. With a deep conviction that in the work a hundred
errors and imperfections exist to each single merit, it is
diffidently submitted to the reading, but not to the critic
world

JOS. G. McCOY.

TO THE HALF-SCORE OF KIND-HEARTED GENTLE¬
MEN, RESIDENTS OF KANSAS CITY, WHO GENEROUSLY
SUSTAINED THE WRITER IN THE DARKEST HOUR AND HARD¬
EST STRUGGLE OF HIS EXISTENCE, THIS BOOK IS
GRATEFULLY INSCRIBED BY ITS

AUTHOR.

CHAPTER I.

THE HONORABLE ANTIQUITY OF THE LIVE STOCK BUSINESS -

THE GRAZING REGIONS OF NORTH AMERICA — TEXAS - ITS

NATURAL DIVISIONS - CATTLE RANCHING - HOW BEGUN -

BRANDING - THE TENURE OF TITLE - HOW SOLD - ENER¬
GETIC RANCHMEN SUCCEED BEST - “COW PON£Ys” - “ THE

COW BOY” - HIS LIFE AND LABOR - TEXAS “THE WEST**

FOR SOUTHERN YOUNG MEN - EXAMPLES OF WM. PERRY¬
MAN - L. B. HARRIS - J. F. ELLISON - J. M. CHOATE.

Among the earliest vocations spoken of by the sacred
historian is that of the producers of livestock, the herdsmen
or, as would be styled, by western men, the ranchmen. The
word rancho is a Spanish term meaning a farm and the
“farm” may be used for any purpose ; whatever that may be,
the prefix will indicate. Thus it is common to hear of a corn
ranch, a wheat ranch, a sheep ranch, a horse ranch, a cattle
ranch. Sacred writ plainly tells us that Abel’s offering being
the product of his stock ranch was more acceptable to Deity
than that of his agricultural brother, but it is painful to learn
that the Granger Cain should get so choler and jealous of his
brother as to let murderous thoughts take possession of him.
Every bible reader (and what stock man don’t read his bible)
knows full well that the great wealth and possession of the
Patriarchs consisted principally in live stock, and the inspired
writer tells us that among other mentioned assets belonging
to Deity, “the cattle upon a thousand hills” are his. Noah
was an ancient, and extensive live stock shipper ; but had
the congressional legislation of the present day prescribing
twenty-six hours, as the limit of time that a stock shipper

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

shall keep his animals aboard, been in force then, Mr. Noah
would certainly have been put in the lock-up, or in the base¬
ment of the Capitol with the contumacious witness ; for he
kept his first shipment aboard forty days without unloading
it for rest or feed. However he must have done well, for his¬
tory tells us that he straightway got on a spree, and went for
the ladies in true cattleman’s style. Nevertheless he seems
to have become disgusted with the business of live stock ship¬
ping, and quit it entirely.

To the superior skill of ancient Jacob as a successful
breeder of “ speckled ” cattle was he indebted for his great
success in acquiring wealth ; but the less said about the mor¬
als of that speckled cattle operation the better perhaps, for
the reputation of Jacob. Nevertheless he seems to have en¬
joyed special favor, and frequent communications from Deity.
Indeed it seemed Deity’s special pleasure to make his will to¬
ward mankind known through the medium of live stock men,
more than any other class. It was to a refugee herdsman at¬
tending his father-in-law’s flocks that he appeared in the burn¬
ing bush and held audible converse with that modest shep¬
herd who was there told of the high duties and destinies
that were upon him, nothing less than to deliver his people
from the iron hand of bondage and lead them through great
trials and tribulations unto the promised land that “ flowed
with milk and honey.”

Great as was his difidence and humble as was the esti¬
mate he put upon his own abilities, believing himself too ob¬
scure and “ slow of speech ” to stand before Egypt’s opulent
King, yet with the unmistakable assurances given him of Di¬
vine support and assistance, he went forth in full confidence
to the accomplishments of the greatest task ever imposed on
mortal man, the faithful unfolding of the will and promises of
God to his people, and the laying down in tablets of stone
and imperishable parchment the foundation of all civilized
just human jurisprudence. It is a remarkable fact that both
Jacob and Moses had such special notice by Providence whilst

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

in the service of their father-in-laws ; in this day and genera¬
tion it is supposed to be the “ mother-in-laws, ” who make a
double portion of Providence indispensable to family quiet-
tude.

It was a herdsman fresh from tending his father’s flock that
God chose to designate as being one after his own heart, and
to inspire to write the richest strains of sacred poetry e’er
chanted by earth’s worshipping millions.

It was the herdsmen upon the hills of Judeah that first
heard the angelic tidings of “ Peace on earth and good will
to man ” and they alone had the honored guidance of a bril¬
liant star specially deputed to guide them to where lay in the
ox’s manger the being “ before whom every knee shall bend
and every tongue confess.” We deem it time idly spent to
farther show, what all must acknowledge, that the vocation oi
live stock is not only ancient, but of old as now, altogether
honorable in the highest degree.

The live stock business, or the breeding, rearing, and
marketing of cattle, hogs, and sheep, is a subject of peculiar
interest to almost every man of all vocations of life. The
western man is interested in it, for it is largely his business,
his means of making money. The western merchant, trades¬
man, and mechanic are interested in it, for upon its pecuni¬
ary prosperity depend, in a large degree, his own. The east¬
ern man is interested in it, for it is a part of his living, and
with a part of the laboring classes of the east, its products
namely, animal flesh, is one of their rare luxuries. The im¬
porter looks to the export of barreled pork and beef for the
exchange to pay his debtor balance. The accountant at his
desk, weary and careworn, deprived of his liberty, looks wist¬
fully forward to tha day when with ample means he can retire
to some villa and enjoy himself in unrestrained freedom
among a troupe of favorite domestic animals. In short, we
believe the love of domestic animals is universal, and we be¬
lieve that that love is elevating, when indulgence is guided by
proper intelligence. At all events, those whom we most re-

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

vere in high stations of life, at present and in the past, were
lovers of domestic animals.

As all trades have peculiarities which mark them in dif¬
ferent sections, so the cattle trade of the west and southwest
has traits distinctive and peculiar to itself, some of which we
propose to note as we attempt a brief history of its early de¬
velopment, and our effort shall be more especially directed to
what is familiarly known as the western and southwestern
Cattle Trade, which is an interest, a commerce, that has not
received the attention its magnitude and importance de¬
served.

The area of the American continent, situated east of the
Rocky Mountains, that is especially adapted to the produc¬
tion of live stock, is very great, and embraces the western
and larger halves of Texas, the Indian Territory, Kansas, Ne¬
braska, Dakota, all of Wyoming, the eastern half of Colora¬
do, and nearly all of New Mexico, aggregating many hun¬
dreds of thousands of square miles and many milions ot
acres. Each of the above mentioned Territories will receive
special attention in its turn. Texas, being not only the larg¬
est but the first one settled, will receive first attention. The
Gulf of Mexico and the Rio Grande River, from its southern
and southwestern boundaries. The territory of New Mexico
forms its western boundary ; Red River is its northern line,
and Louisiana bounds it on the east. Its area is over 237,-
000 square miles, or over 152,000,000 of acres, one hundred
and fifty millions of which are devoted principally to the pro¬
duction of live stock. From its near geographical location to
old Mexico, from whence a supply of live stock for ranching
purposes was early obtained, and owing to its excellent cli¬
mate, being almost destitute of winter weather and its unlim¬
ited grazing facilities, Texas first attracted settlers from
Mexico, as well as from all parts of the New World. Texas
was originally a part of the domain of Mexico, and from that
country was at first sparsely stocked up with Spanish cattle, ot
similar blood and quality to those originally placed in Mexico

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

by Cortes, the conqueror. But a brave and hardy class 01
white men soon came to the control of political affairs in Tex¬
as, and struck for freedom. So self reliant and daring a race
of people, as then constituted the white population of Texas,
could not be conquered nor fail to obtain any reasonable ob¬
ject for which they might unitedly make an effort to attain.

After many bloody struggles, victory perched upon the
Independent banner and the independence of Texas was ac¬
knowledged by the mother country. For a few years Texas
was an independent republic, but believing that in union
there is strength, she cast her lot with the United States, but
retained the ownership of her public domain. So that an
emigrant locating upon her public lands looks to the State
government for a title instead of the United States, as is the
case in other States and Territories. The admission of Tex¬
as into the Union was the cause of the Mexican war, the his¬
tory and results of which are familiar to most readers. The
State of Texas is watered and drained by the Rio Grande,
Pecas, Colorado, Brazos, Trinity, and Red Rivers ; the east¬
ern portion is heavily timbered with immense forests of pitch
or hard pine ; the central portion of the State is more diver¬
sified with prairie and timber, and its soil and climate con¬
spire to make it the very best agricultural country ; the west¬
ern portion of Texas, and by far the largest half, is as well
adapted to stock raising as any portion of the globe, and like
any other portion that is well adapted to that business, it is
fit for little else than stock raising. For a distance of fully
five hundred miles east of the Rocky Mountains the grasses
are different in character and appearance to those found in the
balance of the Mississippi Valley. It is a fine, soft, velvety
species, seldom growing over three or four inches long, and
has a mild, sky bluish, green color. It is familiarly known as
Buffalo grass. It usually attains its full growth in the spring
months, during the ^ rainy season, and when the dry, heated
months of summer approach it cures or dries up, but retains
all the nutritious qualities originally possessed. In fact, many

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

stock men regard it as superior feed, making more fat or ta»-
low when it has attained its growth, and is cured by the sun’s
hot rays, than when it is in process of growing and is fresh
and green. Western Texas is covered with species of
grass nearly akin to the buffalo grass, one of which is called
grammad grass ; also, another variety is called mesquit
grass. Both varieties cure up in summer and constitute excel¬
lent food for stock during the winter. It is too short ot
growth to make much of a fire. In fact, a person unaccus¬
tomed to it would be loath to think that there was so much as
bare sustenance in it, much less good living and thick tallow.
There are several varieties of mesquit grass, one of which
is noted for its disposition to run over the ground, much like
a minature watermelon vine. It is considered the best grass
that grows in Texas. From sections of that State where the
vining mesquit grass abounds comes the heaviest and fattest
Texan cattle, and in the mesquit regions the cattle grow
larger than in any other portion of Texas. In 1870, accord¬
ing to the census, Texas had three and one-half millions of
cattle, three-fourths of a million of sheep, and one-half mil¬
lion of horses, the aggregate value of which would fall little
short of thirty-five millions of dollars.

The largest live stock owners in the United States are
residents of Texas. Several individuals, owning from twenty-
five to seventy-five thousand head 01 cattle each, with horses
in proportion, are to be found in Southwestern Texas.

If it was true in the past political history of our country
that there was “ an irrepressible conflict” between the ideas
and domestic institutions of the two sections of our nation,
it is none the less true now that there is a similar “ conflict”
between those interests denominated or dubbed “short horn”
and “ long horn, ” or Texas cattle and Durham cattle. Both
breeds, we believe, sprang from Europe — the first from Spain
the latter from England. Neither, strictly speaking, is native
nor do we know of any record of cattle of any description
being found on this continent at its discovery. The Spanish

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

cattle were introduced into Mexico by Cortez, the conqueror.
Although he may have destroyed and despoiled a rich gov¬
ernment and a happy people, and sown the seeds of despot¬
ism, discord and revolution by an unfit “amalgamation” of
races, so that in that land of perpetual summer nothing hu¬
man is permanent, yet he did confer a good and enduring
benefit by the introduction of a stock of cattle pecularily adap¬
ted to that clime and people.

Before we go any farther in tracing the history of the
southwestern cattle trade, let us look into the life of the pro¬
ducer, the owner, the ranchman, their manner of life and their
labor — in short, how the cattle are raised. In Texas perhaps
not one owner in ten lives upon his stock “ ranch, ” but usu¬
ally in some near post-office village ; occasionally one is
found living in a city. In choosing a location for a stock
ranch a point centrally situated as to grazing lands and an
abundance of living water is selected for headquarters of the
ranch. Here is erected, usually of logs, a rude house and
corrals, with capacity in proportion to the herd, with a small
pound or chute for branding of large cattle, such, for instance
as a drove of beeves, preparatory to starting them to market.

The slight brand put on the stock at that time is
called a road brand, in contradistinction to the ranch brand,
which is usually put on the animal when young.

We will suppose a man to be just commencing in the
stock business ; after having purchased enough land to give
him a footing whereon to build the above houses and corrals
with sufficient water and timber for his purposes, he then de¬
cides what his “ ranch brand ” and ear marks shall be, and
whatever device or letter or figure he selects, he is careful to
have it differ from all other brands and marks in that portion
of the State. Then he goes before an officer of the county
or district and places upon record his brand and ear marks,
filing a copy thereof, also a statement of the number of cattle
and horses he has at that time bearing that brand and marks,
taking from the Recorder a certificate of his action, from

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

thenceforward all stock found bearing that brand and ear
marks are his, and by him can be taken possession of by sum¬
mary process, wherever found in the State. The stock laws
of Texas are very complete and provide ample penalties for
violation. When a stock man sells his entire cattle or horses
he gives the purchaser articles of writing which are proper
subjects of record, conveying all right and title to all stock
bearing the brands and ear marks therein described. The
conveyance is as absolute and complete as is a deed to a
piece of land in the Northern States, and as has been said,
like deeds should be recorded. The ownership of a stock of
cattle in Texas is determined in a legal contest by the records
just as we determine the ownership of a piece of land. When
a stock is purchased it is usual, if it be not very large, that
each animal is counterbranded ; i. e., the first brand burned
out and the purchaser’s brand burned on instead. The pur¬
chaser has the right to continue the same brand if he so
chooses, not only upon those he buys but upon their increase,
for he not only by his purchase becomes the owner of the
stock but of the brand also, and has all the rights thereunto
pertaining of the original owner. It is customary to brand
the increase whilst quite young, which is often done by the
men from the various ranches of the neighborhood working
in concert, driving to some one of the corrals all the stock in
a given district, and when they are safely enclosed ' proceed
to catch the calves or colts with the lasso and draw them
outside the corral; where is provided a fire for heating the
branding irons, which are ouickly put on, after the proper
cutting of the ears.

The ownership ot the young animal is determined by the
brand of its mother. When this process is completed the
little frightened animal is let run free, and human hand is not
placed upon it again for years, perhaps not until it is full
grown and sold to go to market, when it is necessary to
road brand it. After all has been done by co-operation that
can be advantageously, the cow boys, as the common labor-

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

ers are termed, go in squads of four or five, scouting over
the entire range, camping wherever night overtakes them,
catching with the lasso upon the prairie every young animal
found whose mother bears their employer’s brand. It is lega
and a universal practice to capture any unmarked and un¬
branded animal upon the range and mark and brand the
same in their employer’s brand, no matter to whom the ani¬
mal may really belong, so be it is over one year old and is
unbranded.

It is easy to see that any energetic, enterprising ranchman
can greatly increase the number of his stock by this means ;
in fact, to this opportunity is the rapid increase of many
stockmen’s herds owing. Unbranded animals over a year
old are, in ranchmen’s parlance, called “Mauvrics,” which
name they got from a certain old Frenchman of that name,
who began stock raising with a very few head, and in a very
brief space of time had a remarkably large herd of cattle. It
was found that he actually branded fifty annually for each cow
he owned. Of course he captured the unbranded yearlings.
To supply a ranch, whereon a stock of ten thousand head of
cattle are kept, with the necessary saddle-horses, a stock oi
at least one hundred and fifty brood mares should be kept.
The geldings only are used for the saddle. This class of
horses are small, hardy animals, bordering on the pony closely,
and are of Spanish origin. Their food is grass exclusively,
and many of them are as utterly unfamiliar with the use of
grain as they are of Latin, and will often, when kept in the
north, starve to death before they will eat grain. Almost
everyone has to be taught to eat corn or oats by placing a
quantity in a small muzzle-shaped sack and fastening it over
the animal’s nose. If any one imagines that the life of a
ranchman or cow-boy is one of ease and luxury, or his diet a
feast of fat things, a brief trial will dispel the illusion, as is mist
by the sunshine. True his life is one of more or less excite¬
ment and adventure, and much of it is spent in the saddle, yet
it is a hard life and his daily fare will never give you the gout.

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

Corn bread, mast-fed bacon and coffee constitute nine-
tenths of their diet ; occasionally they have fresh beef and
less often they have vegetables of any description. They do
their own cooking in the rudest and fewest possible vessels,
often not having a single plate or knife and fork other than
their pocket knife, but gather around the camp kettle in true
Indian style, and with a piece of bread in one hand proceed
to fish up a piece of “ sow belly ” and dine sumptuously, not
forgetting to stow away one or more quarts of the strongest
coffee imaginable, without sugar or cream, indeed you would
hesitate, if judging it from appearance, whether to call it cof¬
fee or ink. Of all the vegetables onions and potatoes are
the most desired and the oftenest used, when anything more
than the “ old regulation ” is had. Instead of an oven, fire
place or cooking stove a rude hole is dug in the ground and
the fire made therein, and the coffee-pot, the camp kettle and
the skillet are the only culinary articles used. The life of
the cow boy is one of considerable daily danger and excite¬
ment. It is hard and full of exposure, but is wild and free,
and the young man who has long been a cow boy has but
little taste for any other occupation. He lives hard, works
hard, has but few comforts and fewer necessities. He has
but little, if any, taste for reading. He enjoys a coarse prac¬
tical joke or a smutty story ; loves danger but abhors labor
of the common kind ; never tires riding, never wants to walk,
no matter how short the distance he desires to go. He would
rather fight with pistols than pray ; loves tobacco, liquor and
women better than any other trinity. His life borders nearly
upon that of an Indian. If he reads anything, it is in most
cases a blood and thunder story of the sensation style. He
enjoys his pipe, and relishes a practical joke on his comrades,
or a corrupt tale, wherein abounds much vulgarity and ani¬
mal propensity. His clothes are coarse and substantial, few
in number and often of the gaudy pattern. The “ sombrero ”
hat and large spurs are inevitable accompaniments. Every
house has the appearance of a lack of convenience and com-

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

fort, but the most rude and primitive modes of life seem to
be satisfactory to the cow boy. His wages range from fifteen
to twenty dollars per month in specie. Mexicans can be
employed for about twelve dollars per month. The cow boy
has few wants and fewer necessities, the principle one being
a full supply of tobacco. The desire for anything to read is
very limited.

We will here say for the benefit of our northern readers
that the term “ ranch ” is used in the Southwest instead of
“ farm,” the ordinary laborer is termed a “ cow-boy,” the
horse used a “ cow horse,” and the herd of horses a “ cavvie
yard.”

The fame of Texas as a stock growing country went
abroad in the land, and soon after her admission to the Union,
unto her was turned the eyes of many young men born and
reared in the older southern States, who being poor in this
world’s goods but were ambitious to make for themselves a
home and a fortune. Many of this class went to Texas, then a
new and comparatively thinly settled country, and began in
humblest manner, perhaps for nominal wages, to lay the
foundation of future wealth and success. Time and space
will not suffice for us to mention all who are worthy exam¬
ples of what young men of energy and enterprise have ac¬
complished in Texas, but we will present one as a worthy
and fair example of a large class: Mr. Wm. Peryman, now
a ranchman and drover, of Frio county, Texas, began busi¬
ness life by caring for his father’s stock of cattle, which was
not large, for one-third of the increase. In a few years he
was able to buy out his father’s stock and then sat out exclu¬
sively for himself. He has now been ranching for seventeen
years and has acquired a fortune of princely magnitude.
His ranches aggregate fully twenty-five thousand acres of
land, all under fence, of which he cultivates but few acres,
only sufficient for the necessities of his own house and one
or two fancy saddle horses kept for his own private use. The
balance of his lands are devoted to grazing. His stock of

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

cattle numbers twenty-five thousand head, and the annual
increase varys from four to five thousand. Mr. Peryman
keeps a stock of one thousand horses and annually brands
about three hundred colts. Upon his premises may also be
found from five to six hundred hogs which live and fatten
upon the nuts found in abundance in the timber belts which
skirt almost every stream.

Mr. Peryman has declinea seventy-five thousand dollars
specie for his stock of cattle, and his horses are worth per¬
haps fully twenty thousand dollars. His ranch would be
cheap at fifty thousand dollars. Near one hundred and fifty
thousand dollars is found to be the net results of seventeen
years ranching under the management of Mr. Peryman.

For the first five years after the close of the civil war
New Orleans and old Mexico afforded market for a limi¬
ted number of cattle, and to those points Peryman was a con¬
stant drover, but finding that the plains of Western Kansas
afforded a field for much larger operations he has of late years
turned his droves northward, and for four years has driven
annually from three to five thousand head of beeves, yet he
is particular to keep his stock on the ranche intact and fully
cared for in his absence. His principal ranche is on the San
Magil, a lively stock stream affording plenty of water, and
abounding with sufficient timber for ranche purposes. The
timber affords an abundance of mast for his hogs, a part of
which are always fat and ready for the knife. Mr. Wm,
Peryman is an Alabamian by birth, but has spent most of his
youth in the State of his adoption. He is a finely propor¬
tioned, muscular fellow, fond of his friends, courteous, kind
hearted, and chivalrous, a fine type of a southern gentleman.
If in his power, he will make you happy ; is warm and impul¬
sive in temperament, shrewd in business transactions ; in his
leisure moments jovial and convivial. His extensive business
is conducted with Mexican help exclusively, and although
often one hundred men may be seen employed on his ranche,
not a single female can be seen to grace the premises with

SKETCHES OF TI

CATTLE TRADE

her presence, for although young, Peryman is what the ladies
verm an “Old Bach.”

There are many men now in Texas engaged in ranching
who went to the State before it was detached from Mexico,
and when the struggle for independence began entered heart¬
ily into the war, for liberty and freedom.

Perhaps history gives account of no more hardy, self-
reliant, daring, and brave soldiers than were marshaled under
the Lone Star banner in the bloody war for the independence
of Texas.

L. B. Harris, of San Antonio, has been a resident of
Texas for forty years, coming from Georgia at the age of six
years. At an early age he was thrown upon his own resour¬
ces, which were nothing more than a clear head, a stout, fear¬
less heart, an abundance of energy, and a pair of hands not

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

L. B. HARRIS.

afraid of work. There are few points, indeed, few hills or
hollows in Texas or old Mexico, that he has not roamed over.

If there are privations and hardships that he is not famil¬
iar with, they are few. When but a boy his hard experience
learned him full well the intrinsic value of a dollar, and to¬
day Texas has few more shrewd and successful ranchmen and
drovers than Mr. Harris. Beginning life, as we have said,
penniless, it was just to his hand to take part in the Mexican
war, and was among the first to take up and the last to lay
down arms in that struggle, which grew out of, if not caused
by, the admission of his State into the Federal Union. At
the close of the Mexican war Mr. Harris turned his attention
to civil pursuits and began ranching with only one hundred
and fifty head of cattle and a few horses, which business he
has continued for seventeen successive years, and we need
not add with a reasonable degree of success. His ranches

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

(two in number) contain about thirty-four hundred acres of
land. As he has been for the last five years driving north to
market annually about five thousand head of cattle, mostly of
his own raising, his stock has become reduced to about two
thousand head of cattle, but he still maintains a stock of
twelve hundred horses. The surplus horses are sold at home
to stock men and drovers. Mr. Harris has lived an active,
out-door life, always ready for any emergency, and never
afraid to help himself or his neighbors, but of late years he
has concluded to reduce his business into a smaller compass,
that he may enjoy the comforts of his beautiful home and in¬
teresting family in San Antonio, Texas. There are few mar¬
kets for Texan cattle that he has not been in with his own
stock. But in 1867 he turned from the limited and uncertain
.demand in New Orleans and old Mexico to the larger and
more reliable market found in Western Kansas.

Whoever becomes intimately acquainted with L. B.
Harris will recognize in him a kind-hearted, true man, whose
every impulse is honest, and who would disdain to do a mean
act or oppress a man when in his power to do so. Quick,
wiry, shrewd, always ahead of his appointments, and never
tardy ; does his own thinking and acts on his own judgment,
and seldom fails to do better than those who make far greater
pretensions. It is said that he made the largest single sale
of cattle during the year of 1873, which was to one firm, of
seven thousand head for the snug sum of $ 210,000 .

But we will close this chapter and pass to the history of
the cattle trade of the West by presenting sketches of one or
more Texan ranchmen, such as are not only producers and
drovers, but farmers also.

James F. Ellison, of San Marcos, Texas, left his native
Alabama home at the age of twenty-one, and turned his face
toward the Lone Star State to make for himself a home and
fortune. No sooner did he land in the State of his adoption,
than he engaged in marketing stock. For nearly twenty years
he was a constant drover to Orleans and Mexico, but find-

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST. j ^

ing Western Kansas afforded a more inviting market, the
last five years has found him making an annual drive of from
four to twelve thousand head thereto.

Mr. Ellison is a solid, substantial man, one who thinks
for himself and looks upon life as a great solid reality. But
little given to frivolity, is sober, honest, upright, and true¬
hearted ; is shrewd and energetic in business, and always
manages to sell out in good time and at fair prices. Is pub¬
lic spirited, and wide-awake, full of resources and withal a
genuine good cattle man, and belongs to that type of men of
which any country may be proud.

J. M. CHOATE.

But perhaps no more appropriate personal sketch of a
genuine Texan ranchman could be presented than that of
J. M. Choate, a Tennesseean by birth, but a Texan of
twenty-eight years residence, is perhaps as true a specimen,
both in appearance and manner of life, of the patriarchial

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

ranchman and drover combined, as could be presented. His
broad, high forehead, open frank countenance, full grown,
untrimmed and unshaven beard, mark him as a genuine front¬
iersman, one accustomed to untold privations and hardships ;
yet one to whom no phase of frontier life has either terror or
trials that he would fear to face or shrink from enduring. He
is a close observer of transpiring events, an unerring reader
of human countenances and character. A man whose sin¬
cere aim is to do right with his fellow man, one who suffers
in heart when the people of his State are outraged or are
made to endure unjust impositions. Although upon the sha¬
dy side of life yet he is well preserved ; hale and robust and
as fond of fun and jollity, a good joke or a laughable story,
as are those many years his juniors. Such are briefly the
characteristics of J. M. Choate, of Helena, Texas, who has
spent the entire time that he has lived in Texas upon a
farm and stock ranch. Since the war he has devoted his
time and energies to the live stock business. He was
a drover of ’66, and one of those who wended their way
into Iowa with their herds, but he did not admire north¬
ern driving, regarding it as too precarious — too uncertain,
not to say dangerous to life and limb. So in ’67 and ’68,
he turned his herds toward New Orleans; but the follow¬
ing year a better report of the prospect north reached him,
and hither he h^s annually driven from one to eight thous¬
and head of cattle, and generally sold them upon the prai¬
rie in preference to shipping. There he feels at home
and knows just what he is doing.

Mr. Choate owns a ranch of about fifteen hundred acres,
upon which, and adjoining outlying Government lands, he
keeps about three thousand cattle and five hundred horses.
To his live stock interest he looks for his money, and when he
can sell at home for satisfactory prices prefers to do so, but
when the home buyer fails to come he does not hesitate to
outfit one or more herds and drive them on his own account.

CHAPTER II.

THE SITUATION IN TEXAS BEFORE AND DURING THE WAR - THE

ATTEMPT TO DRIVE CATTLE NORTH IN 1 866 - RECEPTION OF

THE DROVERS IN SOUTHEAST KANSAS AND SOUTHWEST MISSOURI

- EXPERIENCE AND SKETCH OF J. M. DOUGHERTY - ALSO OF R.

D. HUNTER - THE OUTLOOK AT THE CLOSE OF 1 866 - THE RE¬

SULTS OF THE YEAR.

For a quarter of a century or more the herds of Texas
continued to increase much faster than the mature surplus
was marketed. In fact, no market accessible existed suffi¬
cient to consume this surplus, so the excess grew greater and
greater each year, and of course the stock less valuable in
proportion as it became plentiful. Orleans and Mobile were
the only cities of size, outside of the State, that consumed
any considerable portion of Texan cattle, and those markets
were controlled, in fact practically monopolized by the Mor¬
gan line of steamers, plying between the coast of Texas and
those cities. To any one outside of the ship company an
enormous rate of freight was exacted, practically debarring
the ordinary shipper.

But few attempts were ever made before the war to drive
cattle north, although it was done, but not largely or very
successfully. The outbreak of the civil war was a disaster
great, and almost fatal, to the stock interests of Texas, for
as soon as the Mississippi River was occupied and patrolled
by the gun boats of the Union forces and Orleans captured,
then Texas was, so far as a market for her live stock, com¬
pletely walled out. She could not drive North if she would ;
she would not if she could. A few droves were marketed by

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

surreptitiously swimming the Mississippi River below Vicks¬
burg, and thence were hurried east to the Confederate arm¬
ies, but the vigilance of the Union gunboats rendered this an
extra hazardous business, and but a small amount of it was
done. Then dawned a time in Texas that a man’s poverty
was estimated by the number of cattle he possessed.

Many ranchmen entirely neglected their stock, for they
were regarded as not worth caring for. Stocks of cattle were,
in certain sections, offered at prices ranging from one to two
dollars per head, and that often without finding a purchaser.
The effect of the war on the cattle interest and supply in the
North was the very reverse of what it was in Texas, for at its
close the bullock — a select, matured animal, worth five or six
dollars in Texas — was worth in the Northern markets more
than ten times that amount. This vast difference constituted
a wide and tempting field to the cattle speculator — a field that
be was not slow to attempt to occupy. During the winter
and spring of 1865 and 1866 large herds of beeves were
gathered in Texas preparatory to driving North the following
summer. To give an idea of the value of cattle in Texas at
this time, we will here state that an intimate friend, then in
the trade, went to a herd of 3,500 head of beeves and pur¬
chased 600 head of his choice at $6 per head ; then for the
next 600 head, his choice, he paid $3 per head ; making his
purchase of 1,200 head cost on an average $4.50 per head, or
something near forty cents per hundred pounds gross Veight.
At that price beef could hardly be called an expensive luxu¬
ry, or it's production a very profitable business.

We have heard the number of cattle that had crossed
Red river during 1866 put down as high as 260,000 head.
We believe these figures approximate the number, if not ex¬
actly correct. We can readily believe that the bright visions
of great profits and sudden wealth that had shimmered before
the imagination of the drover, leading him on as the subtle
mirage of the desert does the famishing traveler — nerving
him to greater hardships, and buoying him up in many a

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

wild, stormy night, whilst he kept silent vigil over his herd —
were shocked, if not blasted, by the unexpected reception
given him in Southern Kansas and Missouri by a determined,
organized, armed mob, more lawless, insolent and imperious
than a band of wild savages.

Under the pretext of a fear of disease being dissemi¬
nated among the so-called native cattle, all manner of out¬
rage, robbery and murder were perpetrated. As is always
the case, the men who were most likely to loose the least were
the most forward in demonstrations of lawlessness ; in short,
the principal actors were outlaws and thieves, glad of an ex¬
cuse to pillage, kill and steal.

The practice was to go in force and armed to the teeth,
surround the drover, insult him by words such as a cowardly
bully only knows how to use ; spit in his face, snatch hand¬
fuls of beard out of the drover’s face, tie him to a tree and
whip him with anything they could lay their hands on, tie a
rope around his neck and choke him. In short, provoke
him to a demonstration of resistance or self-defense, then kill
him and straightway proceed to appropriate his herd. It
was idle to talk about the protection of law, such a thing was
utterly impossible. Any one who is familiar with the quick,
hot, impetuous temper of the Southern drover will readily
admit that he would brook but little of such treatment before
he would shoot at his assailants. Many of them paid the
forfeit of their lives, often, however, getting in effective work
before they were killed. Others took the unencumbered lei¬
sure of their return to balance accounts and avenge the
wrongs of themselves or their friends, and often right
thoroughly and to their full satisfaction did they do it. South¬
ern Kansas and Missouri were the fields to which every rascal
in either State annually rallied to cheat and swindle, by bogus
checks, worthless notes or any other villainous device, the
Southern drover out of his herds. In short, the tactics were
to stop the drover by mob violence, then rob or swindle him
out of his stock. Could the prairies of Southeast Kansas

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

and Southwest Missouri talk, they could tell many a thrilling,
blood curdling story of carnage, wrong, outrage, robbery and
revenge, not excelled in the history of any banditta, or the
annals of the most bloody savages.

If the mob could not frighten the drover until he would
abandon his stock, or if they failed to obtain a pretext for
killing him outright, resort was had to stampeding the cattle.
This was easily done by availing themselves of the cover, of
night, and creeping stealthily until close to the herd, then
suddenly rising up and flourishing a buffalo robe or blanket.
Of course such sudden and unexpected demonstrations
would frighten the cattle and cause them to dash of at full
speed, pell mell, in the darkness. Before running far the
herd would be broken up into squads, and the farther they ran
the greater the fright, often rushing over rocks, cliffs, or high
banks. The entire herd would be greatly injured and many
of the cattle utterly ruined ; some with limbs broken, others
with horns broken off, and often weeks were required
to re-gather them. Of course, many could never be
found, for, whilst the drover with all his available help was
engaged in re-gathering the cattle, the members of the mob
would be just as busy secreting all they could find, and know¬
ing the country better than the drover, the mob usually got-
the lion’s share. When the drover was exhausted, his horses
worn out with hard service, and his case began to be de¬
plorable, some member of the mob would come into the camp
and offer to hunt up the lost cattle for a snug price, perhaps
five dollars per head. So soon as a bargain was struck the
outlaw would mount his horse and in less than a day would
return with many if not all the lost cattle. It would not re¬
quire a Solomon to know that the cattle had been secreted in
some out of the way nook, and carefully guarded until such
time as it would be profitable for the thieves to return them
to their owner, or send them off to be sold for their own ac¬
count. The drover had no alternative ; he must submit to be
blackmailed or lose his cattle entirely. There was little use

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

in thinking about law or justice, much less enforcing the one
or expecting the other. There are few occupations in life
wherein a man will hold by so brittle a thread a large fortune
as droving. In fact, the drover is nearly as helpless as a
child, for but a single misstep or wrong move and he may lose
his entire herd, representing and constituting all his earthly
possessions, None understood this fact better than the mobs
of outlaws that annually infested the cattle trail leading from
Texas to Sedalia, Mo. If the drover had ready money, and
could obtain an interview with the leader of the mob, it was
not difficult to secure safe transit for his herd, but it was al¬
ways expensive, and few drovers were disposed to buy a rec¬
ognition of their legal rights ; many of them had not the
money, for they had invested all their available cash in cattle
before leaving Texas. Be it said to the credit of the law-
abiding citizens of Southeastern Kansas and Southwestern
Missouri that they neither aided nor abetted the mobs in their
thieving and murdering schemes. The fear of Spanish fever
was made the pretext for committing the grossest outrages,
just as the late civil war was a convenient pretext for lawless
plundering, outraging, and murdering of civil, quiet citizens.
Of the quarter of a million cattle that came up from Texas in
1866 but few found their way to a profitable market, for they
were held back until the weather had become very cold and
the grass long since dead and unnutritious, the cattle poor in
flesh and weak from poverty and hard usage, and were finally
put upon the market unfit for any purpose. Of course they
brought a small price per pound and weighed but little, net¬
ting the drover often less than first cost in Texas. In fact,
many cases could be cited where the drover did not realize
more than enough to pay freight and other expenses ; where¬
as, had they been permitted to drive the stock direct to Seda¬
lia, Missouri, and there shipped over the Missouri Pacific
Railroad to St. Louis, thence to other markets, fortunes
would have been made instead of lost. That the reader may
have a correct idea of what the southern drover endured, we

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

present a brief sketch of the treatment one or two of the
drovers of 1866 received in Southwestern Missouri.

James M. Dougherty, a young enterprising drover, then
of less than twenty years of age, crossed Red river near
Rock Bluffs with a fine herd of cattle numbering over one
thousand head, determined to place them upon the St. Louis
market. Soon after entering the Indian Nation he found in
order to avoid paying an arbitrary tax to the Cherokee Indi¬
ans, he was compelled to turn his course more eastward, and
enter the State of Arkansas near Ft. Smith. Then driving
in a northern direction a short distance, he was com¬
pelled to turn Northwest on account of the rough, rocky,
barren character of the country. Soon after, entering the
State of Missouri, he was aroused from the pleasant revery
of beautiful prospects and snug fortune easily won, by the
appearance of a yelling, armed, organized mob, which or¬
dered him to halt. Never in his limited experience had he
seen such bipeds as constituted that band of self-appointed
guardian angels. Dressed in coarsest home-spun pantaloons
and hunting shirts, with under shirts spun of coarsest tow, a
pair of rude home made cow-hide shoes, upon whose con¬
struction the broad ax and jack-plane had figured largely.
All surmounted with a coon-skin cap of great antiquity and
unmistakably home manufacture. To this add a score of
visages closely resembling the orang outang, bearing evidence
of the lowest order of humanity, with but one overpowering
passion — a love for unrectified whisky of the deadliest brand.
Young Dougherty was told that “them thar steers couldn’t
go an inch fudder. No sare.” Dougherty quietly began to
reason with them, but it was like preaching morality to an
alligator. No sooner did they discover that the drover was
a young man and probably little experienced in life, than they
immediately surrounded him, and whilst a part of the mob
attacked his comrade and shamefully maltreated him, a half
dozen course brutes dragged the drover from his saddle, dis¬
armed him, tied him fast to a tree with his own picket rope,

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

then proceeded to whip him with hickory withes in the most
brutal manner.

Whilst these outrages were being perpetrated upon the
drover and his comrade, a pre-appointed Missourian dashed
into the herd of cattle at full speed, flourishing at arm’s end
a striped blanket, all the while screeching and yelling as only
a semi-civilized being can. Of course this had the intended
effect. The cattle took great fright at the, to them, unusual
demonstrations, and with a whirl and a snort were off at full
speed, rushing wildly over everything before them. Fortu¬
nately for the drover, one or two faithful cow boys were in
the rear of the herd and quickly divining the trouble and real
situation, dashed ahead of the stampeded herd and led it
down a long hollow and around a rough high hill, which was
thickly covered with timber, into a smooth open valley of
prairie, and there adroitly circled the leaders around, and kept
them curving until the entire herd was running on a small
circle which was gradually contracted until they were rushing
round and round in as small a space of ground as it was pos¬
sible for that number of cattle to occupy. In a few minutes
the cattle became quiet, and the cow boys turned their heads
to the west and hurried them on for a distance of five miles,
leaving Dougherty and his comrade to the tender mercies of
the “ gentle lamb-like mob.” In the mean time, after each
one of the Missourians had sated his brutal instincts by
whipping their bound victim, they demanded of Dougherty
that he would mount his horse and leave the country instantly,
not stopping to inquire or look after his herd ; but hasten
away. His comrade had torn himself loose from his perse¬
cutors and putting spurs to his mustang cow pony was soon
out of sight in the adjoining woods, where thick undergrowth
and foliage afforded early seclusion. Dougherty staggered
to where his faithful pony stood, and drawing his lacerated,
bleeding body into his saddle, said to his assailants that they
outnumbered him and were armed, whilst he was alone and
disarmed, and that under these circumstances he would be

or THK WJtST

JTHWKST.

compelled to do as they directed. But there gleamed in the
drovers dark liquid eye a determination ta balance accounts
with as many of that mob as the future might afford opportu¬
nity. Turning his horse’s head at right angles from the
direction in which his herd had retreated, the drover slowly
rode away feeling much more dead than alive. After riding
a mile or more, his comrade halloed to him from a cluster of
underbrush, not far distant, and then rode out to meet him.
Both were glad that they were not killed outright. After
wandering slyly about for a few hours, they found the trail of
the herd, and gladly discovered it was headed westward, and
that it was traveling at a quj^t gait instead of running. Put¬
ting spurs to their ponies they dashed ahead on the trail as fast
as their steeds could carry them. A few hours after night-fall
they beheld a small camp fire and approached cautiously until
they were sure they were making no mistake. Once in camp
the drover soon had his bruised and lacerated body washed
and dressed, as well as could be under the circumstances. Be¬
fore the earliest note of the vigil chanticleer the herd was
again put upon the move, headed for the northeast corner of
the Indian Territory near Baxter Springs, where it arrived
without event of particular note. After Dougherty had
halted on the prairies near Baxter Springs, for a few weeks,
and had fully recovered from the severe trouncing he had re¬
ceived in Missouri, he started out with a few hundred head
of cattle late one evening, and during the night run the
blockade, and after lying in a secluded spot during the day,
made good his way to Ft. Scott, Kansas, where he disposed
of his cattle without trouble, and secured a buyer who re¬
turned to Baxter with him and purchased the balance of his
herd. Having made a satisfactory profit he returned to
Texas, and made necessary business arrangements in order
to embark in the business of driving as a permanent occu¬
pation, which business he has steadily followed ever since,
driving from one thousand to four thousand head of cattle to
Western Kansas market annually. Although now but a.

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

J. M. DOUGHERTY.

young man in years, yet he is old in business experiences
and in a knowledge of the ways of the world. Always
acting upon his own judgment in business matters, never
having had a partner, but does his own thinking, lays his
own plans and personally attends to the smallest details, we
need not add is generally successful. Of that quiet, unobtru¬
sive turn, yet social and pleasant ; fond of having a good
time, but never rude or boisterous ; always upright and hon¬
orable. Besides having a valuable property in Texas, he has
established a fine ranch in Colorado, on which now are over
one thousand head of cattle, besides horses and other necessary
auxiliaries to success. It is easy to see that before many
more years are numbered among the past, J. M. Dougherty
will take position among the best and most substantial citi¬
zens of the great new West. During the Summer of 1866,
the whole country about Baxter Springs was alive with block¬
aded cattle, the owners of which were trying all manner of

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

expedients to get through Southwest Missouri to some ship¬
ping point on ihe Missouri Pacific R. R. The drover who
was fortunate enough to have at his own command cash to
the amount of two or three dollars for each head of cattle he
wished to pass through to Sedalia, Mo., had no trouble to
arrange matters with the leader of the mob, to not only per¬
mit the herd to pass on, but give it safe conduct through the
country to the railroad. But few of the drovers were so for¬
tunately situated in financial matters as to be able to avail
themselves of the opportunity of buying their way, or the
permission to go to market. A strong prejudice existed in
the minds of the mass of drovers to buying the privilege of
exercising a plain, inalienable right, to-wit : to take their
stock unmolested to any market to which they might choose
to go. But in that day and country a man’s, especially South¬
ern drover’s, legal rights, without physical for'ce sufficient to
enforce them or secure respect thereof, were as useless as a
piece of refuse paper.

A large number of the drovers of 1866, after learning
fully the hopeless situation in Southeastern Kansas and
Southwestern Missouri, turned their heads due west from
Baxter Springs, and drove them along or near the Kansas
line near two hundred miles, then turned northwest through
the State of Kansas, just west of all settlement, until a point
about due west of St. Joe, Mo., was reached; then turning
east or northeast, drove to St. Joe and shipped them to Chi¬
cago. Or, crossing the Missouri river near Nebraska City,
or Brownsville, Neb., pushed into Central Iowa, and there
sold to the cattle feeders of that State. Those that took the
latter course did very well, for they obtained good prices from
the cattle feeders of Iowa, whose corn crops were very good,
and millions of bushels thereof could only be profitably dis¬
posed of by feeding it to live stock, of which the supply was
limited. But some of those who shipped their cattle to Chi¬
cago fared badly, either selling at low prices or packing on
their own account, which latter operation was more unprofita-

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

ble than the former. The cattle had been driven so far, and
subjected to so much hardship, that they had become poor in
flesh and were unfit for any purpose except to be fed during
the winter, and grazed until fat the following Summer.

We might write a volume of sketches and personal expe¬
riences of drovers of 1866, but one more will suffice. R. D.
Hunter, now a resident of Kansas City, Mo., but of Ayrshire
Scottish birth, came to this continent at the age of ten years,
with his father who selected Central Illinois, then a compara¬
tively unsettled country, as his home, and devoted himself to
farming and stock-raising after the manner of that day and
country ; about which occupation the subject of this sketch
was thoroughly instructed. Reared a farmer it was but nat¬
ural as well as wise, for him to begin life for himself, following
the footsteps of his father. But when Pike’s Peak Gold dis¬
coveries were heralded over the land, golden visions flitted
before the imagination of the young farmer, too bright and
persuasive for resistance. In the spring of 1859, R. D.
Hunter, with his comrades, rigged for traveling overland, left
the “States” for the gold fields of the Rocky Mountains.
Arriving at the mountain’s base, but a brief stop was made,
for each one was anxious to learn what fickle fortune had in
store for him. In a short time they were numbered among
the residents and miners of “Gregory’s Lode” and “Russell’s
Gulch.” The first year Mr. Hunter did fairly and managed
to wrest from mother earth’s rugged bosom a snug sum of
the glittering dust, but not an amount equal to his aspira¬
tions. The following year he embarked in a quartz milling
enterprise, which proved unfortunate. About this time arose
a great excitement among the miners, caused by reports of
fabulously rich mines in Arizonia, and hither R. D. Hunter
turned his face. But the Indians, not liking the proposed
inundation of pale faces, waxed hostile ; and Mr. Hunter
turned his course to the San J uan country, a valley of South¬
west Colorado. Whilst in that country he discovered
what is now known as “ Putnam’s Lode,” a gold-bearing

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

quartz vein of undoubted great richness ; but owing to its
peculiar location and the distance, the difficulty of access 01
the country, no more was done in the way of working it,
than enough to vest the title in the discoverer. This property
he owns to this day, hoping for a .railroad to go sufficiently
near to make the working of it practicable. The San Juan
country proving a failure, save for quartz mining, after spend¬
ing two years in those regions, Mr. Hunter returned to Den¬
ver, and there meeting his family decided to make Denver
his home, temporarily at least. But just then came the dark
hour of life, the time that tries a man’s soul. No sooner had
he began to feel that he might enjoy life and home, notwith¬
standing fortune’s frown, then affliction marked him as a vic¬
tim, prostrating him helpless upon his bed for near a year,
unable to so much as raise his hand, all superinduced by hard
labor and exposure in the mines, and that, too, without a
fitting reward. When health was restored, he decided that
gold diggings, with shovel and pick, was not his forte, and
returned, after five years’ absence, to Missouri, where he soon
became engaged in a cattle trade ; supplying oxen to freight¬
ers. At that date no railroads extended beyond the Missouri
river. At that business success rewarded his efforts, and at
the end of the civil war, he turned his face toward the Lone
Star State in quest of cattle. Before reaching Red River he
met, and purchased, a herd of four hundred head, coming
north, in the Indian Territory. Having paid twenty-five dol¬
lars per head for the cattle, a price which to him appeared
very small, he felt that the day had come in which fortune for
him was in reach, like a hanging apple, just ready to be
plucked. How delusive were these appearances and hopes,
the sequel will show. The western line of Vernon county,
Mo., was passed but a few miles, on the route to Sedalia,
when a coon-skin-capped biped, calling himself the sheriff ot
Vernon county, summarily took formal possession of his herd
and at the same time placed the drover under arrest. About
ten thousand head of cattle, with their owners or foremen in

3 2

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

charge, were seized and arrested at the same time. Here
was a dilemma not expected, one not put down in their alma¬
nac of probabilities. How to get out, with the least loss, was
the question that perplexed the drovers. During the first
night, whilst under arrest, Mr. Hunter hit upon a plan to
extricate himself and friends, which he disclosed to them pri¬
vately, and exacted their promise to perform the part assigned
them.

Early next morning he told the sheriff he did not want
to go to jail, that he would prefer to make his own living and
not burthen the very good people of Vernon county with his
support, and if the sheriff would accompany him to Lamar,
the county seat, distant thirty-five miles, he thought some
friends could be found who would go his bail. To this the
sheriff assented, for it would then be convenient to put the
drover in the lockup if bail was not obtained. No sooner
were the sheriff and his prisoner well out of sight from the
drover’s camp than, according to previous arrangements, the
herds were put upon the trail directly west toward the Indian
neutral lands, distant thirty-five miles, and a brisk speed
maintained without halting to graze or rest.

Upon the road to Lamar the drover had a chance to
study the face of his captor, and came to the conclusion that
he was bacchanalian in his religious predilections, a '‘persua¬
sion” of large membership, quite common among the deni¬
zens of Southwestern Missouri. Soon after arriving at the
county seat, they went to a Temple of Bacchus, of which there
were several in the village, to offer their devotions. As the
drover anticipated the officer proved to be an enthusiastic de¬
votee, ready at all times to offer libations, providing the dro¬
ver would pay the priest, which he was not loth to do. But
there is a limit to ordinary human capacity, and so there was
to the devotional capacity of that sheriff. When he had
passed that stage wherein everything was beautiful and lovely,
and the memory of his humble circumstances had fled from
his brain, and great wealth and joy inexpressible had taken

OF THE WEST

SOUTHWEST.

“THE VERNON SHERIFF TAKES BONDS.”
possession oi him — to the peculiar condition when the ground
will come right up and strike a fellow in the face ; when all
these manifestations were visible upon the county official, to
the drover, he concluded that he had given all necessary
“bonds,” and, whilst the official was blubbering and wallowing
in the street, the drover mounted his steed and, bidding La¬
mar and the sheriff good afternoon, turned his steed west¬
ward. About daylight next morning Mr. Hunter overtook
his comrades and friends with their herds in the Indian Nation.
When he came up to them he found every cow boy, not need¬
ed to care for the cattle, marshalled in military style guarding
the rear of the last herd. It would not have been altogether

SKETCHES OB' THE CATTLE TRADE

healthy for a sheriffs posse to have attempted a re-arrest ot
those herds or the drovers ; but when they were sure they
were out of the State of Missouri all fear of disturbance
ceased, and they soon halted, rested, and grazed their herds.

After a few days spent recuperating, the herds were put
upon their travels, taking a westerly direction for the distance
of about one hundred and fifty miles, then curving north¬
ward, the Kaw river was crossed at St. Mary’s. On reach¬
ing the vicinity of Atchison, a German settlement felt
called upon to go upon the war path after the drovers, and
would have caused them great trouble and, perhaps, loss but
for the kindness of a Mr. Joel Hyatt, a large land owner and
a good hearted sensible man of that section, who gave the
persecuted drovers an asylum upon his lands, where they
rested for two weeks. Then they crossed the river at St.
Joe and drove in a northerly direction to Bartlett Station, on
the Chicago and Rock Island Road, and there shipped their
herds. Mr. Hunter decided to take his cattle off at Joliet,
Illinois, and put them on Blue-grass pasture, rather than to
go direct on to the Chicago market, as his comrades did. It
proved a wise decision, for in a few weeks he was able to find
a buyer at remunerative prices. The first year, in the South¬
ern cattle trade, closed, and Mr. Hunter stood six thousand
dollars better off, in cash, aside from experience, which was
no small item, for a place and way had been found for future
operations.

In 1867, R. D. Hunter went to Texas and bought twelve
hundred head of cattle, which he drove to Omaha, Neb., and
sold to Government contractors, at a snug profit. The sum¬
mer of 1869, found him on the trail from Texas, with a fine
herd of twenty-five hundred head of cattle, which were sold
in Chicago at paying figures. But in 1870, a herd of four¬
teen hundred head of select beeves was put upon the Chicago
market, and four and one-half to six and one-quarter cents,
gross weight, was realized, netting a profit of twenty dollars
per head.

ROBERT D. HUNTER.

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

In every business there is bitter mingled with the sweet ;
this is strictly true in the cattle business, and the year of
1871 was, from a multitude of causes, a bitter, bad year for
the drover, and, although not a year of actual disaster to Mr.
Hunter, yet it was without that desirable profit. Although
he handled about five thousand, and did it to the best of his
judgment, yet it was as a year’s transaction — “bad medicine.”
This was the last year of Mr. Hunter’s driving. Since that
time he has traded in cattle in the West, and aided the Kan¬
sas Pacific Railway in the management of its live stock busi¬
ness.

In 1873, he established in connection with Capt. Evens,
and others, a livestock commission house, with headquarters
at Kansas City. This house soon took rank among the lead¬
ing ones in the West, and has handled many thousand head
of cattle, almost invariably to the entire satisfaction of its
numerous patrons, which includes many of the largest live
stock operators in the West. Each member of the firm is a
practical and successful stockman, and their combined capi¬
tals enables them to render ample aid to their patrons, besides
rendering the firm entirely responsible and safe. As a man he
is kind and courteous to all with whom he has business rela¬
tions ; but his manner is bluff and positive, bordering on the
hauteur, and to one whom he dislikes he is unmercifully se¬
vere. Indeed it is little comfort his enemies receive at his
hands. Language fails to express his intense contempt for a
little, mean action ; and as for a dishonest transaction, or its
author, neither can receive other than his severest outspoken
condemnation. But for his friends, or for one whom he re¬
gards as worthy, he has a big heart, throbbing the warmest
pulsations of sympathy. He is strictly honorable in his busi¬
ness transactions, dignified in his manner, courteous in his
address, inflexible in will — self reliant. Such is R. D. Hun¬
ter, and all right feeling men freely yield him rthe palm of
honorable, manly success.

Other drovers of 1866 turned their herds eastward from

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

Baxter Springs, and drove along or near the Arkansas line
until they were able to flank the hostile regions and strike the
railroad at a shipping point east of Sedalia. But this route
was mountainous, rocky, and much of the distance heavily
timbered and altogether unsuited for successful cattle driving.
The cattle driven over it became foot sore and miserably poor
in flesh, and, of course, when put on the St. Louis market,
sold for mean prices and weighed very light ; so that when
the drover had sold out and paid up expenses, but little cash
remained to swell his impoverished pocket-book. But by far
the larger half of the drovers remained near Baxter Springs,
preferring to hope on and keep trying, to risking any untried
route with their herds. Soon the frost came and killed the
grass, which, after drying a few days, was set fire and the
whole country burned over. This was a great calamity to the
drovers.

All along the border a host of sharpers and thieves — men
with good address and plausible pretensions — were anxious to
buy cattle, but owing to the unsettled condition of affairs, were
afraid to bring the cash with them, but had what purported to
be New York exchange, with which they bought cattle of
such as they could induce to accept their drafts. Of course
their drafts were worthless, but before the drover could find it
out and secure himself, the rascal would have turned the stock
into some secret confederate’s hands and left for parts un¬
known to the drover. Others used worthless notes and such
other devices as villianous ingenuity could invent, and each
scheme or plan would surely catch some unwary, confid¬
ing drover. Other drovers, to save themselves from loss or
financial ruin, placed their herds in winter quarters in South¬
ern Kansas and Missouri. Others found their way into the
corn regions of Central Illinois, and there fed their stock until
a purchaser was found. But the year 1 866 was, taking all
things into consideration, one of great disaster to Southern
drovers. All the bright prospects of marketing, profitably, the
immense surplus live stock of Texas, faded away, or worse.

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

proved tq those who tried driving a serious financial loss. So
the last great hope of the Southern cattle man, for an outlet and
market for his live stock, proved but bitter disappointment.
Never, perhaps, in the history of Texas, was the business of
cattle ranching at so low estate as about the close of the year
1866 and during the following year. The cattle producing
portions of the State were overrun with stock. The ranges
were becoming depastured, and, as a consequence, the unpro¬
tected earth became parched by the hot sun, and permanent
drouth threatened. The stocks of cattle would not yield suffi¬
cient revenue to pay the expenses of caring for them — that is,
branding, marking, etc. Strange as it may seem, it is never¬
theless true, that within the bounds of that great State, no
one came forward to open up an outlet for the millions of her
matured cattle. Over the business of cattle ranching a deep
gloom settled, crushing to earth the hopes of many whose
herds numbered multiplied thousands. Such was the condi¬
tion of affairs in Texas at the close of the year 1866. But it
is said that the darkest hour is that one just before the break
of day. And so it was in this case. Just how and from
whence came that brighter hour, that dawn of day, will form
the theme of a future chapter.

CHAPTER III.

A CHANGE FOR THE BETTER - A YOUNG ILLINOISAN - HIS PLAN

TO ESTABLISH A CATTLE SHIPPING DEPOT - HE TAKES A TRIP

WEST - VISITS RAILROAD OFFICES AT ST. LOUIS - MEETS AN

“IMMENSE” RAILROAD MAN - RETURNS TO KANSAS - SELECTS

ABILENE AS THE POINT - ABILENE IN 1 86 7 - A GREAT MER¬
CHANT - NUMBER OF CATTLE IN TEXAS IN i860 - SHIPMENT OF

FIRST TRAIN - CHARACTERISTICS OF THE DROVERS OF 1 867 -

J. L. DRISKILL AND H. M. CHILDERS.

The close of the year 1866, left the business of driving
Texan cattle prostrate, and the entire driving fraternity both
North and South, in an utterly discouraged condition. And
such was the effect of the experiences of 1866, but in 1867
events took a change for the better, and just how that change
was brought about we propose to note.

At that time there lived in Central Illinois three broth¬
ers doing a large live stock shipping business as one com¬
pany or firm. One thousand head of native cattle costing
from $80 to $140 per head, was not an unusual week’s ship¬
ment. When it is remembered that three shipments were on
the road at the same time during all the season, it will be seen
that their resources, financially, were not limited. All three
of the brothers were of that sanguine, impetuous, speculative
temperament; just such dispositions as always look most
upon the bright side of the picture and never feel inclined to
look at the dangers or hazards of a venture, but take it for
granted that all will end well that looks well in the beginning.
If the above could have been said of the brothers collectively,
it could be said with particular truthfulness of the younger
one of them. Ambitious, energetic, quick to scent out and

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

untiring to follow a speculation, fully possessed with an earn¬
est desire to do something that would alike benefit humanity
as well as himself ; something that, when life’s rugged battles
were over, could be pointed to as an evidence that he had
lived to some good purpose and that the world, or a portion
thereof, was benefitted by his having lived. This young man
conceived the idea of opening up an outlet for Texan cattle.
Being impressed with a knowledge of the number of cattle in
Texas and the difficulties of getting them to market by the
routes and means then in use, and realizing the great dis¬
parity of Texas values and Northern prices of cattle, he set
himself to thinking and studying to hit upon some plan
whereby these great extremes would be equalized. The
plan was to establish at some accessible point a depot or mar¬
ket to which a Texan drover could bring his stock unmolested,
and there, failing to find a buyer, he could go upon the public
highways to any market in the country he wished. In short,
it was to establish a market whereat the Southern drover and
Northern buyer would meet upon an equal footing, and both
be undisturbed by mobs or swindling thieves. The longer
the idea of this enterprise was harbored by the young Illinois
cattle shipper, the more determined he became and the more
enthusiastic to carry it out. In fact it became an in¬
spiration almost irresistible, rising superior to all other aspira¬
tions of his life, and to which he gave unremitting attention
and labor for years ; indeed he is not now unmindful of the
purposes which first impelled him forward. It was not long
after the project had taken crude shape in the mind of the
projector, before he was casting his eye over the map of the
Western States, studying the situation and trying to deter¬
mine whether the Western prairies or the Southern rivers
would be the better place to establish the proposed depot.
Before he had fully decided in his own mind a trip to Kansas
City was taken, and soon after arriving there he met with
certain residents who were interested in a large herd of cattle
coming up from Texas and expected to arrive somewhere in

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

Kansas, but just where was not known, as no particular place
had been designated. After repeated conversations with
these parties a trip up the Kansas Pacific, then called the
Union Pacific, East Division, was determined upon. The road
was completed and operated, at that time, as far west as Sa-
lina, Kansas. Junction City was visited and a proposition
made to one of the leading business men to purchase of him
a tract of land sufficiently large to build a stock yard and
such other facilities as were necessary for cattle shipping,
but an exorbitant price was asked, in fact a flat refusal to sell
at any price was the final answer of the wide-awake Junction-
ite. So by that one act of donkey stupidity and avarice
Junction City drove from her a trade which soon developed to
many millions. Failing to obtain a location but fully decided to
select the prairies of the West instead of the banks of the
Southern rivers for a field to put his scheme on foot, the Illi¬
noisan returned to St. Louis for the purpose of consulting the
railroad magnates about rates of freight and other necessary
facilities for the accommodation of live stock.

Visiting the general offices of the Kansas Pacific and in¬
troducing himself to the President and Executive Committee
there, stating fully his project and the reasons for the confi¬
dent belief in him, giving a moderate estimate of the proba¬
ble number of cars of live stock freight that would be sent
over the road, offering as a reason the great number of cattle
in Texas, and the utter lack of an outlet, and the urgent ne¬
cessity of such a shipping depot. He closed with an appeal for
such consideration as the importance of the proposed enter¬
prise deserved. After hearing patiently the statement of the
cattle shipper, the President, a pert, lively, courteous little
gentleman, but evidently not a practical railroad man, and one
that knew absolutely nothing about freighting live stock, re¬
plied, smiling incredulously, “That they knew no reason why
such a thing might not be done, that freight going East was
just what they wanted, and if any one would risk their money
in the enterprise the railroad company would stand by them,

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

THE RAILROAD KING AND THE ILLINOISAN,
and afford such switches, cars, etc., as would be needed, and
if it proved a success the projector should be liberally paid,
but they having no faith in it were not willing to risk a dollar
in the enterprise. ’ How well the Kansas Pacific company
kept or did not keep this pledge, the sequel will show. They
evidently regarded the project as a wild, chimerical, visionary
scheme, and so declared. After the above interview with the
officers of the K. P. was ended, the office of the Missouri
Pacific was visited to ascertain what rates of freight would be
granted from the State Line to St. Louis. Here was the first
really great man engaged in the contemptible occupation oi
managing a railroad, that the Illinoisan ever beheld. Enter¬
ing the elegant office of the President and finding that digni¬
tary arrayed in much “store clothes/' quietly smoking a cigar
while looking over some business papers, the Illinois “Bovine
Puncher, dressed in a style that greatly contrasted with the

OK THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

official’s garb — rough, stogy, unblacked boots, a slouch hat,
seedy coat, soiled shirt, and unmentionables that had seen
better days twelve months previous, when they had adorned
the counter of the Jewish dealer. He timidly stated his bus¬
iness in modest terms, and asked what rates of freight would
be charged on the stock coming to St. Louis. When he had
made his statement and propounded his question, the railroad
official, tipping his cigar up at right angles with his nose, and
striking the attitude of indescribable greatness, when stoop¬
ing to notice an infinitesimal object, and with an air border¬
ing on immensity, said :

“It occurs to me that you havn’t any cattle to ship, and
never did have any, and I, sir, have no evidence that you ever
will have any, and I think you are talking about rates of
freight for speculative purposes, therefore, you get out of this
office, and let me not be troubled with anv more of your
style.”

If the heavens had fallen, the Illinoisan would not have
been more surprised and nonplussed than he was by the an¬
swer and conduct of this very pompous railroad official. An
attempt was made to explain, but not so much as a hearing
would be accorded him, so the Illinoisan left the office, won¬
dering what could have been the inscrutable purposes of
Jehovah in creating and suffering such a great being to remain
on earth, instead of appointing him to manage the universe.
But in less than twelve hours the General Freight Agent of
the Hannibal & St. Joe Rail/oad had closed a contract, giving
very satisfactory rates of freight from the Missouri River to
Quincy, thence to Chicago. St. Louis never has, and, per¬
haps, never will gain the prestige she might have had as a
live stock market, had she not blocked up the channels of
access to her with egotistical pomposities. But in the events
of this life it often occurs that inordinate pride and silly vanity
meet their downfall, and such was the early fate of this great
railroad man. His conduct became known in the city, and
finally was commented on by the press in very severe terms,

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

and when the directors next met for the annual election,
another man was found to fill his position. But just how an
opportunity occurred to retaliate for insolent treatment, may
be noted elsewhere.

But little time sufficed to arrange business matters, tempo¬
rarily, in Illinois, and as soon as accomplished, Central Kansas
was revisited for the purpose of selecting a point at which the
facilities for holding, handling and shipping cattle could be
made. From Junction City, the track of the Kansas Pacific
Railway was closely followed, and various points inspected
with regard to their adaptability to a cattle business, until
Solomon City was reached, near which a fine site for stock
yards was found ; but after one or two conferences with some
of the leading citizens, it became evident that they regarded
such a thing as a cattle trade with stupid horror, and from all
that could be learned upon thorough inquiry, the citizens or
Salina were much in the same mood. The person making
such propositions was apparently regarded as a monster
threatening calamity and pestilence. After spending a lew
days investigating, Abilene, then as now, the county seat ot
Dickinson county, was selected as the point of location lor the
coming enterprise. Abilene in 1867 was a very small, dead
place, consisting of about one dozen log huts, low, small, rude
affairs, four-fifths of which were covered with dirt for roofing ;
indeed, but one shingle roof could be seen in the whole city.
The business of the burg was conducted in two small rooms,
mere log huts, and of course the inevitable saloon also in a
log hut, was to be found.

The proprietor of the saloon was a corpulent, jolly, good-
souled, congenial old man of the backwoods pattern, who, in
his younger days, loved to fish and hunt, and enjoyed the life
of the frontiersman. For his amusement a colony of pet
prairie dogs were located on his lots, and often the old gentle-
mnn might be seen feeding his pets. Tourists and others
often purchased one or more of these dogs, and took them
East as curiosities.

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

The principal owner of the town site was living on a farm,
aJ alas 1 for” his virtue, had been a member of the Legtsla-

tUreotP"erXnts doing business at Abilene, in an
, j i : was selling' goods on commission, keep
°,dal 3^knoef aborn Jo wheel-larrow loads of second class
mg a s Manhatten country store, and as often as

goods culled from a ManM ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ of sun.

twice a yeaf reP stunning fellow, with at least two-thirds

dfiehS 1 sm^snpp y of brains located in that bump phrenolog-

« “'zzzsizzsi

:i.r, - rri

’ j i • if • Knt when “bv ways that are dark and
trid^that'are'vain” he managed to remove his petit business
o a deserted saloon building, you should have seen tan put
on wealthy airs, and talk about his assets, and tell how con¬
temptible laboring people appeared to him as compared with
himself even going so far in his silly vanity as to say that
"poor folks smelt ifke wet dogs," an odor that was peculiarly

OF THE WEST ANp SOUTHWEST.

THE GREAT MERCHANT SMELLING POOR FOLKS,
superiority in the cattle trade, it was usually charged up, in a
covert manner, in some man’s supply bill and collected. Nev¬
er, but once, was he prevailed upon to put his name to a sub¬
scription list for public purposes, and that he repudiated,
utterly refusing to pay a dollar. In short, he was by instinct
much like a leech, always ready to suck substance from any
arm of commerce that another had the sagacity and enter¬
prise to bring before him or within his reach. To be sure,
any other sordid, selfish man, by practicing only selfish arts,
and by borrowing his neighbor’s goods or chattels and
never returning them, and if sued for their value plead the
statute of limitations, could acquire a few hundred dollars
worth of property, however little sense he might have.

But none other than an ingrate cowardly wretch without
honor or sense of shame could, or would seek to obtain money
or property in this way. But it was the favorite method of
the great merchant. Speaking about cowardice, you should
have heard him tell of his great bravery, his wonderful deeds
of valor and heroism. Why, the courage that met and slew

; CATTLE TRADE

THE GREAT MERCHANT PLEADING STATUTES OF LIMITATION

AGAINST HONEST DEBTS.

Goliah, or defended the pass of Thermopylae, or of Napo¬
leon’s ist body guard, was contemptible undiluted cowardice
compared with his own bravery. Those he had met and
vanquished, in mortal combat, were as the sands of the sea in
number. In fact, where he had just come from, (wherever
that was), the country itself was too limited in which to bury
his dead, and several hospitals were needed in which to care
for his wounded. At last the surviving citizens came en
mass on bended knees, begging him as they would a great
Achilles, to depart from their country before their race became
exterminated. In fact you would suppose, to hear him talk,
that every morning he breakfasted upon a man fricassed, or
broiled on toast. But, upon a certain day, in later years,
when there was an exciting local contest and election in Abi¬
lene, the great merchant took occasion to publicly speak in
grossly slanderous terms of about two score of very respect¬
able ladies. The good people of that, now very quiet, vil¬
lage could not stand this infamous outrage, much less let it
go by unrebuked, so going in mass to the great merchant’s
office in the deserted saloon building, made him understand

THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

- HIS MARROW BONES.

in unmistakable terms their opinions and purposes. No
sooner did he see that condign punishment was imminent,
then he fell upon his knees and with a palid countenance, and
frame quaking with guilty fear, begged and implored mercy.
There was no end of his self abnegation and self reproach.

o say that he “eat dirt” or got down low would be putting
i mild. The sight of the trembling, jibbering coward dis¬
armed the enraged citizens and they turned from him in
loathing disgust. A desire that the world might know there
was such a being as that great merchant of Abilene is, the
only apology we offer for devoting so much space to such a
contemptible subject.

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

A tract of land adjoining the town was purchased for the
location of the stock yards, hotel, offices, etc.

Abilene was selected because the country was entirely
unsettled, well watered, excellent grass, and nearly the entire
area of country was adapted to holding cattle. And it was
the farthest point east at which a good depot for cattle bus¬
iness could have been made. Although its selection was
made by an entire stranger to the country adjoining, and upon
his practical judgment only, time has proved that no other so
good point can be found in the State for the cattle trade.
The advantages and requirements were all in its favor. After
the point had been decided upon, the labor of getting mate¬
rial upon the ground began.

From Hannibal, Missouri, came the pine lumber, and
from Lenape, Kansas, came the hard wood, and work began
in earnest and with energy. In sixty days from July ist a
shipping yard, that would accommodate three thousand cat¬
tle, a large pair of Fairbank’s scales, a barn and an office
were completed, and a good three story hotel well on the
way toward completion.

When it is remembered that this was accomplished in so
short a time, notwithstanding the fact that every particle of
material had to be brought frofn the East, and that, too, over
a slow moving railroad, it will be seen that energy and a de¬
termined will were at work.

We should have mentioned sooner that when the point
at which to locate the shipping yards was determined upon,
a man well versed in the geography of the country and ac¬
customed to life on the prairie, was sent into Southern Kan¬
sas and the Indian Territory with instructions to hunt up
every straggling drove possible, (and every drove was strag¬
gling, for they had not where to go,) and tell them of Abi¬
lene, and what was being done there toward making a mar¬
ket and outlet for Texan cattle. Mounting his pony at Junc¬
tion City, a lonely ride of almost two hundred miles was tak¬
en in a southwesterly direction, crossing the Arkansas River

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

at the site of the present city of Wichita, thence far down
into the Indian country ; then turning east until trails of
herds were found, which were followed until the drove was
overtaken, and the owner fully posted in that, to him, all-
absorbing topic, to-wit : a good, safe place to drive to, where
he could sell or ship his cattle unmolested to other markets.

This was joyous news to the drover, for the fear of
trouble and violence hung like an incubus over his waking
thoughts alike with his sleeping moments. It was almost too
good to be believed ; could it be possible that some one was
about to afford a Texan drover any other reception than out¬
rage and robbery ? They were very suspicious that some
trap was set, to be sprung on them ; they were not ready to
credit the proposition that the day of fair dealing had dawned
for Texan drovers, and the era of mobs, brutal murder, and
arbitrary proscription ended forever.

Yet they turned their herds toward the point designated,
and slowly and cautiously moved on northward, their minds
constantly agitated with hope and fear alternately.

The first herd that arrived at Abilene was driven from.
Texas by a Mr. Thompson, but sold to Smith, McCord &
Chandler, Northern men, in the Indian Nation, and by them
driven to Abilene. However, a herd owned by Colonel O.
W. Wheeler, Wilson and Hicks, all Californians, en route
for the Pacific States, were stopped about thirty miles from
Abilene for rest, and finally disposed of at Abilene, was
really the first herd that came up from Texas, and broke the
trail, followed by the other herds. About thirty-five thous¬
and head were driven in 1867.

It should be borne in mind that it was fully the first of
July before it was decided to attempt a cattle depot at Abi¬
lene or elsewhere, which, of course, was too late to increase
the drive from Texas that year, but time enough only to
gather together at that point such herds as were already on
the road northward. Not until the cattle were nearly all at
Abilene would the incredulous K. P. Railway Company build

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

the requisite switch, and then not until a written demand was
made for it, after which, an order was issued to put in a twenty-
car switch, and particular direction was given to use “ cull ”
ties, adding that they expected to take it up next year. It
was with great difficulty that a hundred car switch was ob¬
tained instead of the twenty-car one. Nor were the neces¬
sary transfer and feed yards at Leavenworth put in until plans
were made and a man to superintend their construction fur¬
nished by the same parties that were laboring so hard to get
their enterprise on foot at Abilene. But in a comparatively
brief time all things were ready for the shipment of the first
train.

As we have before stated, about 35,000 head of cattle
arrived at Abilene in 1867. In i860 we believe that the
United States Census gave Texas 3,500,000 head of cattle.
We are not sure that this is correct, but believe it is.

The drive of 1867 was about one per cent, of the sup¬
ply. Great hardships attended driving that year on account
of Osage Indian troubles, excessive rain-storms, and flooded
rivers. The cholera made sad havoc with many drovers,
some of whom died with the malady and many suffered
greatly. The heavy rains caused an immense growth of
grass, too coarse and washy to be good food for cattle or
horses, and but little of the first years’ arrivals at Abilene
were fit to go to market. However, on the 5th of Septem¬
ber, 1867, the first shipment of twenty cars was made to
Chicago. Several Illinois stock men and others, joined in an
excursion from Springfield, Ill., to Abilene, to celebrate by
feast, wine and song, the auspicious event.

Arriving at Abilene in the evening, several large tents,
including one for dining purposes, were found ready for the
reception of guests. A substantial repast was spread before
the excursionists, and devoured with a relish peculiar to camp
life, after which wine, toasts, and speechifying were the order
until a late hour at night.

Before the sun had mounted high in the heavens on the

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

following day, the iron horse was darting down the Kaw Val¬
ley with the first train load of cattle that ever passed over
the Kansas Pacific Railroad, the precursor to many thousands
destined to follow. This train of cattle sold in Chicago to a
speculator at a small profit to the shipper. The second ship¬
ment was made in a short time afterward and was forwarded
on to Albany, not finding a purchaser at Chicago. This
shipment, consisting of nearly 900 head, costing about
$17,500, was sold at Albany for $300 less than the freight
bill, losing more than first cost. Indeed, Texan cattle
beef then was not considered eatable, and was .as unsalable
in the Eastern markets as would have been a shipment of
prairie wolves.

Everything injurious that prejudice, ignorance and envy
could imagine, was said against Texas cattle, and a concerted
effort was made to prevent by any and every device that in¬
genuity could invent, to prevent them from going to market.
Nevertheless, consumers soon learned that well fatted Texan
beef was as good as any other kind and much cheaper.

The year 1867 was one of short corn crops and of low
prices for thin fleshed cattle, and the market continued to
decline until midwinter. Notwithstanding all the impediments
enumerated, the shipments of ’67 reached almost 1,000 cars,
all of which, except seventeen, went over the Hannibal & St.
Joe Railroad to Chicago, and were there packed, largely on
the owners’ account. The seventeen cars spoken of went to
St. Louis, over the Missouri Pacific.

Now, when the time arrived and shipments began to go
forward at a lively rate, and any man, although a fool, could
see the success of the enterprise, an agent of the Missouri
Pacific road put in an appearance at Abilene, and was very
solicitous for business for his road. But the memory of the
insulting conduct of his official superior was still fresh in the
mind of that Illinoisan, and he told the agent that “ it just
occurred to him that ne had no cattle for his road, never had,
and there was no evidence then that he ever would have, and

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

to please say so to his President.” The agent seemed to
relish the force of such language, and departed forthwith to
deliver the message.

It was amusing to observe with what mingled joy and
suspicion the drover of ’67 contemplated the arrangements
completed and under way at Abilene for his accommodation.
He could hardly believe that there was not some swindle in
it somewhere. He there beheld more done and doing for
him than he had ever seen before in his life. In his own State,
great as the wealth of some of its citizens were, no one had
manifested public spirit and enterprise sufficient to establish
an outlet for her millions of cattle ; and to this day we know
of no other State which has so few public spirited citizens, so
few that are willing to do an act or develop an enterprise
which has for its object the benefit of the whole people. They
are all mindful of individual, selfish undertakings, but are
stolidly indifferent to public ones. For instance, why should
the business men of any Northern point, at great expense,
advertise the Texan cattle as being for sale upon the prairie,
adjacent to their villages, and how seldom a Texan will pay a
dollar willingly to advertise up a given point as being a good
market for his cattle. They do not hesitate to squander tens,
fifties and hundreds for the gratification of their appetites or
passions, yet to pay a few dollars to help on some legitimate
enterprise for the benefit of the whole, is generally esteemed
a great hardship, and often they refuse entirely. This is not
because they are penurious, for they are not, but because they
lack that public spirit so necessary for the accomplishment of
any great public good.

Talk to them about advertising the point, as a cattle
market, at which they ape stopping their herds, and they will
regard it as money thrown away. More advertising
has been done for them gratuitously than for the people of
any other State. An appreciation of the benefits of adver¬
tising is something of which the majority of Texans are des¬
titute. They are, as a class, not liberally educated, and but

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

few of them are extensile readers, but they are possessed of
strong natural sense, well skilled in judging human nature,
close observers of all events passing before them, thoroughly
drilled in the customs of frontier life, more clannish than the
Scotch, more suspicious than need be yet often easily gulled
by promises of large prices for their stock ; very prone to
put an erroneous construction upon the acts and words of a
Northern man, inclined to sympathize with one from their
own State as against another from the North, no matter what
the Southern man may have been guilty of. To beat a
Northern man in a business transaction was perfectly legiti¬
mate, and regarded all such as their natural enemies of
whom nothing good was to be expected. Nothing could
arouse their suspicions to a greater extent than a disinterest¬
ed act of kindness. Fond of a practical joke, always pleased
with a good story, and not offended if it was of an immoral
character ; universal tiplers, but seldom drunkards ; cosmo¬
politan in their loves ; in practice, if not in theory, apostles
of Victoria Woodhull, but always chivalrously courteous to a
modest lady ; possessing a strong, innate sense of right and
wrong, a quick, impulsive temper, great lovers of a horse and
always good riders and good horsemen ; always free to spend
their money lavishly for such objects or purposes as best
please them ; very quick to detect an injury or insult, and not
slow to avenge it nor quick to forget it ; always ready to help
a comrade out of a scrape, full of life and fun ; would illy
brook rules of restraint, free and easy.

Such were some of the traits of character often met with
in the early days of Abilene’s glory, but there were good rea¬
sons for all these phases and eccentricities of character.
Their home and early life was in a wild frontier country,
where schools were few and far between, their facilities for at¬
taining news by the daily press exceedingly limited. They
had just passed through a bitter civil war, which graduated
their former education of hatred and suspicion of Northern
men, and above all, the long and bitter experiences they had

SKETCHES OF THF. CATTLE TRADE

endured in Southern Kansas and Missouri, swindling, out¬
rage, robbery, rapine, and murder were full sufficient to em¬
bitter beings more than human. But we are not disposed to
do the character of Texan drovers injustice, for the most of
them are honorable men, and regard their pledged word of
honor or their verbal contract as inviolable, sacred, and not to
be broken under any circumstances whatever. Often trans¬
actions involving many thousands of dollars are made ver¬
bally only, and complied with to the letter. Indeed, if this
were not so they would often experience great hardships in
transacting their business as well as getting through the
country with their stock. We remember but few instances
where a Texan, after selling his herd, went off home without
paying all his business obligations. But one occurs to us
now which we relate : A certain young drover, more youth¬
ful than honest, after selling off his herd slipped off to Texas
leaving his supply bills and banker unpaid. A number of
leading drovers met together and after counselling about the
effect of such conduct upon the credit of drovers as a class,
decided to send one of their own number to Texas after the
young rascal, which was done, and in a few weeks he was
brought back and compelled to settle his outstanding indebt¬
edness, also the expense in full of his own arrest and return.

It is true that the Western Cattle Trade has been no
feeble means of bringing about an era of better feeling be¬
tween Northern and Texas men by bringing them in contact
with each other in commercial transactions. The feeling to¬
day existing in the breasts of all men from both sections are
far different and better than they were six years ago.

Strange as it may appear, there were a few Texan dro¬
vers who were from the beginning opposed to making a mar¬
ket, a general centre, a drovers’ headquarters for cattle sale
and shipment at Abilene, and were always for driving on
North or somewhere else, and never let an opportunity slip
to speak and work against the enterprise, but it was made a
success in spite of their opposition. Most of those who op-

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

posed it were not of the open, bold, outspoken class of men,
but of that class who would make loud professions of friend¬
ship to your face but slander you to your back, and manufac¬
ture out of what you may have said in friendly conversation,
perverted and false stories and privately retail them to such
as would listen, whilst they would distort every word and act
into some hideous offense. Such men as had no good, clean
motives themselves and could not impute such to any one
else ; men who were as lank and scrofulous in soul as they
were in physical appearance. Be it said to the credit of
Texan drovers as a class, that but few, very few of those
scrubby ones ever put in an appearance among the many
hundreds who visited Western Kansas, and their influence
was as limited as their dispositions were devilish.

Among certain Kansans there developed an opposition
as malignant as it was detestable. Certain old broken down
political bummers and played-out adventurers got up and
secured the passage through the Kansas Legislature, of a
certain “Texas Cattle Prohibitory Law,” so drawn as to
make Ellsworth the only point at which such cattle could be
legally driven. When Abilene began to develop as a ship¬
ping depot their hostility knew no bounds. Utterly unscru¬
pulous as to means employed, destitute of honorable man¬
hood and incapable of doing a legitimate business in an hon¬
est manner ; full of low cunning and despicable motives, these
ghouls resorted to every device their fertile brain could con¬
ceive to defeat the efforts of the parties who were at work at
Abilene. After visiting threats of law and bodily harm upon
all concerned, they finally travelled over land, a distance of
one hundred miles, in a buggy and spent a week trying to
get the settlers of Dickinson county to mob such drovers as
were stopping their cattle within the county limits. But all
their efforts were unavailing and they were compelled to
leave, infinitely more chagrined than language can express.
It never was their intention to make a shipping point at Ells¬
worth but to force the cattle to go there and then swindle

J. L. DRISKILL.

,heir owners out of them by such means as those same trick¬
sters °iri connection with other thieves had often done m other
years on the Southern border of Kansas.

Of the adventurous drover of 1867, but few ar

-nr

ing such glowing accounts of the land baptized to fr^domat

”Lo he decided to go and see the State for himselt. The

year .848 found him trying his skill at agricu ^

but not liking the results turned his attention “

ing until the outbreak of the civil war For three yeersM

Driskell furnished beef to the Confederate army and . rumy

•‘Texan Rangers” fared sumptuously upon fat roasts Iro

OK THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

Driskell’s droves. Notwithstanding fine profits were realized
in the army trade, and large amounts of money was made,
yet, owing to the Confederate currency becoming valueless,
he found himself bankrupt with a cord of “ money.” When
the “ cruel war ” was over and peace established, after taking
a calm view of the actual situation, he determined to turn his
entire attention to the cattle trade, and after one year spent in
driving to New Orleans, he turned his droves toward Western
Kansas. From that day to this each year has witnessed his
herds of from 1,000 to 6,000 head, cross Red river, bound
northward. There are few ways of disposing of cattle, after
having driven them north, that he has not tried, and usually
with at least moderate success. One year he will pack on his
own account ; another he will sell on the prairie ; another finds
him shipping; and still another, as in 1873, finds him sending
four thousand head to Cheyenne, to the Territorial market;
whiist as an experiment he “ tanks ” out a couple of thousand
cows, and sends one thousand fine beeves to be slaughtered
and packed on his own account, whilst the train goes forward
to Chicago freighted with his cattle. All of which business
is so quietly dispatched, no one would scarce know that he
was in the country, much less doing anything. During his
six years’ driving, fortune has dealt kindly with him and gave
unto his charge a comfortable amount of this world’s goods.
And few more worthy custodians could be found in the west¬
ern cattle trade, than the subject of this sketch — a kind, quiet,
unassuming gentleman, with whom it is only necessary to be¬
come acquainted in order to appreciate his courteous dignified
manhood. Those who know him best are his warmest friends.
Those who once have business transactions with him, are
always glad to meet him again, and to know that it is his pur¬
pose to continue driving to Western Kansas.

There are few more widely known and persistent drov¬
ers than H. M. Childress, a native born Texan. For the last
seven years he has been on one trail or another, leading
northward, with a herd varying in size from one to ten thou-

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

H M. CHILDRESS.

SttCSiSi5=.?JUlS^

WG ^866^ pushed his herd into Central Iowa and sold

Hiliiiii

and^the "final ltd up TsTunsatisfactory to the drover as
and the nnal w p However Childers got his money,

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST

that of 1871 was one fraught with misfortune to him He
no, only lost heavily in business bu, recklessly squandered
many thousands of dollars, so that his finances were not In
uch shape aa ,0 enable him ,0 drive again during the yelr
, 87 , B“ ' bem? a man of indomitable energy, he would not
long be .die. Meeting with a Texan, who ted secuTd ne^
essiry authority from the Governor of Texas and man,,
Ranchmen, who had suffered great loss by theft, committed
by banditti and cattle thieves from New Mexico, they set out

Thiswldmt° 7erri,°r>r' to recaPture the stolen cattle.
This was an undertaking fraught with hardship and danger

would „e',‘nW T P°ssessio" ^stolen cattle were found.’
would not give them up without a struggle and some

^“7^ OCCUrred' which more than one Mexican

aim iriA ^ h:S^ny' COU‘d accomplish their

aim. Although they went a lawful manner after that that

they had a lawful right to take, ye, they were combed to
have a detachment of U. S. cavalry as an escort, and to Jd
them m retaking the stolen property wherever found

cattle and athreeTr%reTl,ted ” recaPturinff eleven thousand
cattle and three hundred horses, which were driven to Colo

rado and there disposed of to good advantage. Childress
wound up his year's work with a snug fortune as a reward for
his darmg and labor. Although on the trip he was in seven
fights, yet he lost no men nor received an injury himself
After dosing up his business in Colorado he returned o
Western Kansas and from there to Texas, after an absent
of two years, ,0 renew his old business occupation of droving

Jt Ka^asCftf3 Th"d hiS 'Tiliajr facea™"g 'he cattlemen
ro L The,;eare few drovcrs, or for that matter
ew men, of the peculiar type of Childress. A convivial

Is ite, 7' * W3yS *? °f fun and fro,ic' with * heart as large
hesitate ,0 use one" 'efetaS^heT ocL^o°n “qdrei" ™

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

would always rather avoid a quarrel than seek one, but will
not shrink from facing the most desperate characters. Nev¬
ertheless there are few more kind-hearted men more true to
friends than Childress. But to his enemies he presents, in
anger, that peculiar characteristic of smiling demoniacally
whilst he is plainly and openly maneuvering to shoot them
through the heart. However, the reader will be in error if he
concludes that Childress is a desperado, for he is not. Upon
the other hand many of the finest traits of the true gentle¬
man are his. Generous, scrupulously honorable and honest,
chivalric and impulsive; in his heart he wishes every one well,
and is never so happy himself as when he can make his friends
happy, by performing generous acts of kindness.

CHAPTER IV.

OPPOSITION OF SETTLERS - HOW IT WAS OVERCOME - CONTRAC¬
TORS FOR SUPPLYING INDIANS WITH BEEF - FEEDING POOR

LO AND FAMILY - HOW IT IS DONE - CAPT. E. B. MILLETT -

COL. J. J. MYERS.

We have stated previously that there were but few set¬
tlers near Abilene, but in the eastern portion of the county
there were quite a thick settlement of farmers, all compara¬
tively poor, struggling hard to make a home and a compe¬
tence, but with the usual privations, hardships and misfor¬
tunes that attend the pioneer settlers of every new country.
A full and comprehensive statement of all an average new
settler endures before himself and family are comfortable, is
a theme that few have done justice, and a theme for a better
article than many that find prominent places in the public
press of the day.

But the few settlers that were near Abilene became
greatly excited about the proposed introduction of Texas
cattle in the county, and after talking the matter over privately
among themselves they determined to organize a company to
stampede every drove of cattle that came into the county, and
to this end elected one of the most intelligent of their num¬
ber to be their captain, and bound themselves in a solemn
pledge to stand by each other and to keep up their organiza¬
tion until the proposed introduction of Texas cattle was
abandoned. We think certain old seedy politicians whom
we have before mentioned, were at the bottom of this organ¬
ization. However, to conciliate this resistance and dissolve
this hostile organization was the work of a day. Word was
sent to the captain, a determined fellow, but withal a man of

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

good practical sense, with a sharp eye for the main chance, to
call as many of Tiis company as possible to a meeting at his
cabin on a designated evening whereat the matter of Texan
cattle would be discussed pro and con in a friendly manner
by parties representing both sides in interest. When the
appointed afternoon came, several Texan drovers who had
lately arrived in advance of their herds, to inspect the pros¬
pects of Abilene as a cattle market, accompanied the party
who was building the shipping facilities at Abilene, to the
captain’s cabin where a few settlers had gathered, feeling that
a fight was quite as likely to be the result of the meeting as
anything else. By a previous arrangement made, on the way
to the captain’s domicile by the cattlemen, the Illinoisan took
the “stump” and proceeded to talk to the settlers in a calm,
friendly spirit, and in a manner that impressed every hearer
with his sincerity. He told the settlers that he came among
them to do them good, not harm, to build them up and not
tear them down, to enrich and not impoverish them, to give
unto them a home cash market for their farm products and
to make their county burg a head center of a great commerce,
that would justly excite the envy of every rival town in the
valley. Then the speaker pointed out how the immense in¬
flux of men camping on the adjacent prairies would need
every aliment of life, and told them that if they taxed their
little farms to their utmost in raising grain and vegetables, yet
they could not furnish a tithe of the amount that would be
needed, and of course if the supply was small and the demand
great, the prices must and would be exhorbitantly high, and
that the only trouble would be that they could or would not
furnish one-half the amount needed, no matter what the price
might be. In addition to the above named advantages there
was that of an opportunity to invest their savings in cheap,
young cattle, which would pay one hundred per cent, in ten
months and consume only the hay, straw and cornstalks and
such unmarketable farm products.

Whilst this little talk was being made, nearly every drover

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

present, by previous arrangement, went to bartering with the
Kansans for butter, eggs, potatoes, onions, oats, corn, and
such other produce as they might be able to use at camp, and
always paying from one-fourth to double the price asked by
the settlers. At the conclusion of the meeting the Captain
said he had got a “sight" of the cattle trade that was new
and convincing to him. “ And, gentlemen," said he, “ if I
can make any money out of this cattle trade, I am not afraid
of ‘ Spanish fever ;’ but if I can’t make any money out of this

cattle trade, then I am d - d fraid of * Spanish fever.’ ” The

entire hostile organization dissolved without any farther trou¬
ble, and before a single steer was “ stampeded.” The captain
of the company was accused by his comrades of turning
traitor and selling out, but the fact is that his good sense dic¬
tated the course he finally took, and but few years elapsed
before a substantial frame house and miles of good fencing,
with other comforts and substantial improvements, aside from
a fine herd of wintered fat Texan cattle, were among the
fruits that he enjoyed by following the course marked out and
suggested to him at that meeting. Many others who, at the
time the cattle trade was first established at Abilene, were
living in “ dug-outs" or mere hovels constructed of poles and
dirt, and whose poverty was extreme, were soon enabled to
build themselves beautiful houses, and provide other comforts
that they could not have afforded for years later, had it not
been for the money expended annually by the stock men in
their midst. All these things soon dawned on the minds of
many of the settlers, and there was soon a strong cattle trade
party among them — men friendly to the trade and powerful
enough to neutralize the efforts and influence of the few who
remained hostile.

An incident occurred during the fall of 1867 that illus¬
trates the enormous profits, not to say swindles, of contract¬
ors for the supply of beef for the Indians, under the old sys¬
tem of feeding poor “Lo" and family. As it illustrates more
than one phase of the Western way of doing things, we venture

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

, . A Texan drover, whose herd consisted largely of

;:" kca«K -ved at Abilene, and shortly
y nffpr of *1 1 per head for his stock, which offer he reluse
but borrowed jsf.ooo and went to Leavenworth, and got on a
^ree which lasted until the cattle season was over and the
Jrass was killed by the frost and his cattle began to ie o
S rtv and cold Then he returned, bringing a governme
contractor1 whh'him, who bought his herd at six dollars per
head and straightway, after getting from some settlers a ha
doWlargeWoxen which he turned in "
proceeded to drive them 140 miles southwest to Fort Larn ,
where upon arrival he turned the entire herd over to anlndian

pound" net weight, or thirty-seven dollars and one^half per
head or a profit of fully thirty dollars per head When
remembered that the entire herd would not have average
uTtondred pounds gross, the financial
villianv of the transaction is apparent. But in those nays
an lndian contract was only another name for a big steal and
swindle Not one contract in each hundred made was ev
fiUed in letter and spirit. Often the cattle would be delivered
at an agreed average of net weight greater than the actual
gross weight, and when delivered on one day would be stole
tom the government agent at night and re-del.vered the next
day. Of course the government agent was entirely innocent
and was not conniving with the contractor. Oh no.
some one else that is on the make, not Indian agents.

They are pure self-sacrificing patriots, and are notorious
for their abhorrence of money, for don't they always get poor
in a year, when taking care of some little starving remnant
of a tribe; and are compelled to remove their families from
a sumptuous log cabin to an abhorred brick mansion abound¬
ing w h lawns, drives, arbors, statuary, and other afflictions
peculiar to that class of poverty. It would take volume to
chronicle the unalloyed benevolefice and disinterested virtues

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

of that army of noble men who rush to the front of civiliza¬
tion and offer themselves for immolation upon the altar of
some Indian agency. The immortal Washington’s deeds of
love, performed for his enslaved countrymen, pale into the
mellow glow of phosphorus, or the “ Jack O’ Lantern ” of
the marsh when compared with the brilliant, heroic, self-abne¬
gation of an Indian agent.

We doubt not but that the battallions set to guard the
Commissary stores of the pearly eternal city, seen by none
of earth save the wandering Peri, will be chosen from the
ranks of the Indian Agents of the West.

We are glad to note that under the present system of man¬
aging the Indians of the plains, much of the wholesale plun¬
dering of the Government has been prevented. But we yet
see a greater desire among those who strive to obtain Gov¬
ernment contracts for furnishing the Indians with beef, to ob¬
tain the supplying of such agencies as are farthest out from
civilization, and where superior officials will trouble the con¬
tractor with their presence least, and where the facilities for
obtaining correct weights are the most limited. Of course
this arises from a desire existing in the breasts of the con¬
tractors to feed full-blood “ Los” instead of half-breeds and
mongrels — such as are on the border of civilization and at
semi-savage agencies — and in nowise arises from any desire
to have an opportunity to perpetrate, in collusion with the In¬
dian Agent, a stupendous swindle on the Government. Oh
no ! Perish the thought, and blistered be the tongue that
says so. By far the larger portion of the cattle consumed by
the Northern Indians are bought on the western plains of
Kansas, after their arrival from Texas. A lively struggle is
witnessed every spring among the drovers who try to get
their cattle into the Indian contracts. It now takes between
thirty and forty thousand head of cattle annually to feed the
Indians of the Upper Missouri country. After purchasing
them in Western Kansas, they are put upon the road or trail
and driven northward, from four to eight hundred miles, and

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

delivered in installments to the various agencies, and as so!l
as dehvered are slam and devoured by the hungry redskins.

I he Regulations require full grown beeves for fhe Indian
supply but often cows and stock cattle are put in and are in
wS.Pcr:insedady,,he older catt ,e.P A XtXd

epkurian tastes of^e^'^foble red man/^'n^the wi^er^diat

portton of the herd which is held for the last installments dur
mg Febntary and March, get very poor, in fact often tel Js
they walk with poverty and starvation.

For they have been held without sufficient food for months
m a most ngorous climate. Indeed it is not uncommon X
the poor brutes to freeze stiff and dead during the bitter cold
mghts incident to those regions. If they could have a suffi
ciency of good, nounshing food, they would be able to with
stand far greater degrees of cold than that under which Thev

to gorge himself with, semi-occisionally, duringX"
and early sprmg months. If there are no facility for wefeh
mg provtded by Government, it is usual for the contractor fnd
Indian agent to estimate the weight, or "guess off” X h^d

HITS" altelJXXt:

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

contract for ten thousand head of cattle, with only five thou¬
sand head, is a proposition that most any Indian contractor
can solve and explain, if he will. But whatever numbers and
whatever heights agreed upon by the agent and contractor,
are set forth in a voucher, wherein Uncle Samuel is made
the debtor. Upon presentation of these vouchers, properly
certified, the Bureau of Indian Affairs in the Interior Depart¬
ment, pays the sum therein called for, or draws a check
against the appropriation previously made by Congress for
feeding the Indians. Could our readers see those untutored
redskins go for the bullock, once it is turned over to them and
shot down, it would perhaps go far towards dispelling that
halo of sentimentality with which certain dreamy poets and
maudlin writers have clothed the degraded, miserable beings.
The very parts of the animal that a civilized being rejects as
unfit to be eaten in any shape whatever, are the very richest,
and first to be devoured dainties, according to Mr. “ Lo’s”
notion of “ good things.”

Northern men usually obtain the contracts to furnish the
Indians with beef, and they contract with Southern drovers
to furnish the cattle delivered at, or near the various agencies,
at which the Government turns over other supplies, such as
flour, meal, bacon, blankets, &c. It requires no small amount
of determined will, and stamina, as well as practical knowl¬
edge of handling cattle on the plains, to be a successful
Northern drover. Their hardships and privations are four¬
fold greater than are endured by the average driver from
Texas to Kansas. The trail is through an unsettled country.
The weather stormy and soon bitter cold winter sets in, and
there are few comfortable days before the opening of the fol¬
lowing spring, which occurs much later than in more South¬
ern latitudes. For several years in succession Capt. E. B.
Millett, of Texas, has furnished cattle to Indian contractors
for the Upper Missouri River agencies.

He began driving north in 1866, and was one of the
drovers who turned their herds east from Baxter Springs

OF THE WEST

SOUTHWEST.

along the Arkansas line around or past the blockaded districts
of Missouri. On reaching the Mississippi river his cattle
were too poor in flesh to put upon the market, and not meet¬
ing a Northern feeder to whom he could dispose of his herd,
he wended his way into eastern central Illinois, and there
went into winter quarters. Buying feed for his cattle until
after the lapse of a few months, he was able to sell them, but

CAPT. E. B. MILLETT.

not at such figures as sufficiently paid him for his labor, risk,
and hardship endured. When he returned to Texas in the
latter part of the winter of 1866, and 1867, it was with the
fixed opinion that driving Texan cattle north was unprofita¬
ble, and in fact next thing to impracticable. So the following
summer of 1867, he was not among the few drovers who
ventured to start herds northward, for of that he felt he had
had enough. But when the drovers of 1867 returned to
Texas and told of Abilene, the Captain was among the first
to gather a very choice herd of eight hundred beeves and put

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

them upon the trail to Western Kansas. After carefully driv¬
ing his herd for about sixty days, after crossing Red river, he
found himself and herd in the immediate vicinity of Abilene.
Selecting excellent herding grounds convenient to the village,
the Captain took up his quarters at the Drovers’ Cottage
and awaited farther developments, hoping for the appearance
of a buyer. He did not wait long, for he had one of the
most carefully selected and driven herds that could be found
on the market, and it was of this herd that a certain Illinoisan
selected two hundred and twenty-four choice beeves, men¬
tioned elsewhere, upon which he essayed to get back some
of his losses of the previous year, but with what results
suffice it to say that, the Illinoisan’s returns from that drove of
cattle, good and fat though they were, were fully six thous¬
and dollars less than his investment. The balance of the
Captain’s herd was sold at remunerative figures to a packer,
later in the fall. So the first year’s operation was highly sat¬
isfactory, and the determination was formed to continue the
business. He could fully appreciate the benefits of a ship¬
ping depot to which he could bring his herds unmolested
by mobs and thieves; where he would stand a good
chance of meeting a buyer ; or, if he choose, cou-ld go unmo¬
lested direct to any desired market in the north. The Cap¬
tain obtained his military title in the confederate army, where
he won honorable distinction, and made innumerable friends.
Indeed it would be difficult to find a superior example of a
high-minded, dignified Southern gentleman than he. Quiet
in turn of mind and manner, is never heard talking loud and
coarsely, not even to his inferiors or subordinates. Perhaps
the entire droving fraternity could not furnish a better stu¬
dent, or one who loves to pass so many of his leisure hours
in reading, and there is not in the western cattle trade a bet¬
ter informed or better read man than Capt. Millett. In his
various business undertakings he has been at least moderately
successful. He has driven from one thousand to eight thous¬
and cattle annually, but seldom, if ever, ships or packs on

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

his own account ; always preferring to sell on the plains, and
if need be, drive to any desired point in the Territories, to
accomplish the desired object. He has spent several win¬
ters in the upper Missouri river country, and furnished thous¬
ands of cattle to Government contractors for Indian supplies.
To Nevada and Idaho he has sent one or more herds and,
after wintering and fattening, sold them to the mining villa¬
ges of those regions. He is a man of great energy and
integrity of character, with clear solid business ideas.

The demand for cheap cattle in the Territories, at the
close of the war, was very great, and the supplying thereof
aided materially in making Abilene a success. For each
year there were large numbers of stock cattle brought there
from Texas, many more than could have possibly found pur¬
chasers, if there had been no territorial demand. Almost
every territory in the Union is well adapted to raising cattle,
and in each there is and has been more or less demand for
beef, from those engaged in mining and other vocations.
The markets thus created, always afforded good prices, and
that in gold. Besides, just at that time the Union, and Cen¬
tral Pacific Railroads were in process of construction, em¬
ploying many thousands of men who, of course, had to be
fed. All of these circumstances conspired to make an active
demand for all grades of cattle, and when it is remembered
that a succession of drouthy seasons had destroyed nearly all
the cattle in California, it will be seen that the supply must
needs come principally from east of the Rocky Mountains.

As we have remarked, the demand for cattle to supply the
Territories was great, and the turning of attention of terri¬
torial operators to Abilene as a place to buy, greatly aided
that point in becoming a complete market — one in which any
kind, sort, or sized cattle could either be bought or sold ; and
the driving of herds purchased at Abilene, to the Territories,
became quite as common as driving from Texas to Abilene.
There were certain Texan drovers who looked almost exclu¬
sively to the territorial operators for buyers for their stock.

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

£4

In case they succeeded in meeting a purchaser, the drovers
would often deliver their herds at some agreed point, in which¬
ever Territory the buyer might desire. In such cases, the
same outfit and the same cow-boys that came from Texas
with the stock, would go on to its territorial destination.
Perhaps the most prominent drover engaged in supplying the
territorial demand, is Col. J. J. Myers, of Lockhart, Texas. In
June, 1867, during the first visit of the Illinoisan to the West,
and whilst his project of a cattle shipping depot was not yet fully
determined upon, and whilst stopping temporarily at the Hale
House in Junction City, he was introduced to a small sized,
quiet gentlemen, who was evidently entering that class upon
whose head Time had began to sprinkle her silver frosts.
The gentleman was introduced as being late from Texas ; and
here, thought the Illinoisan, was just the man before whom to
lay the plan of the contemplated project, and thus secure the
Texan’s judgment upon it — whether or not it was plausible or
advisable, and if such a shipping depot was created, would
the Texan drovers bring their herds to it. So, inviting the
venerable gentleman to take a walk, they strolled off to a
lumber pile, on a vacant lot, and there sat down, deeply
engaged in conversation, for two or more hours ; in which
time the Illinoisan explained his contemplated project fully,
and noted closely the comment and opinions of the Texan
drover, for such he proved to be. He there told that young
Illinoisan that such a depot, for cattle sale and shipment, was
the greatest need of Texan stock men, and that whoever
would establish and conduct such an enterprise, upon legiti¬
mate business principles, would be a benefactor to the entire
Texan live stock interest, and would undoubtedly receive all
the patronage that could reasonably be desired. From the
hour of that informal interview between the Texan drover
and the Illinoisan, the project, such as was soon developed at
Abilene, became a fixed fact or purpose in the mind of its
projector. There are moments in ones existence when a
decision, or a purpose arrived at, shapes future actions and

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

events — even changes the whole tenor of ones life and labor.
Such was the effect of the two brief hours spent in conversa¬
tion by the Texan drover and the Illinoisan. When they
shook hands and parted, there existed in the breast of the
Illinoisan an impression that he had been talking to a sincere,
honest man, who spoke his convictions without deceit or with¬
out any desire whatever to mislead any one, but with a firmly
fixed determination to give only correct information. The

decisions and determinations formed at that interview, fixed
the life and labor of the Illinoisan. That Texan drover was
Col. J. J. Myers, a man of that peculiar build and statue that
can endure untold physical hardships without fatigue. There
are few men in the West or Northwest who have so thorough
a knowledge — gathered from actual travel and observation —
of all the Territories of the Union, as Col. Myers. One ot
his early tours over the West was made across the continent

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

. , , . „ r Fremont, on his famous exploring expedition.

This occurred almost forty years ago, when the
a youth, just en^ri”^^^£°^°^s j^'sQm]1 that he did

ttg!ve°Wmsmelf rest until he had traversed ^ -7 foot
of 1 rr^to^^>^^I^et^l(^e^nSaU that'dame^ature had to
shw he turned his attention to stock ranching in Texas,

1 ’ L- Lnmp at Lockhart. He too was a drover in 1866,
“d Endured all kinds of outrages before he was able tosell
STherf But in .86? he decided to drive into Western Kan¬
sas and so flank all settlements, and take his chances to fin
rnurdtaser some where on the frontier, but just where he
could sell, he did not know. The Colonel was among Ab.-
lene’s first patrons and warmest friends, and so long as it was

a market he annually made his appearance with from four

thousand to sixteen thousand head of cattle ; which, of course
were driven in several herds, never more than three thousand

b^TheXss oflattle the Colonel usually drove was just suited
for the territorial demand ; therefore, he never shipped but
few car loads. For four years he sold his herds to parties
living in Salt Lake, genuine Mormons of the true po lygamist
faith and delivered his stock to them in Utah. The Mor
mons as all well know, are very clannish people and, espe¬
cially the lay members, are little disposed to trade with, or
buvanvthing of a Gentile. Therefore, to avoid this religious
prejudice, and in order to get into and through the Territory
without trouble, or having to pay exorbitant damage “la “
the Latter Day Saints ; it was his practice to instruct his men
o tefi every resident of Utah they met, that the cattle be¬
longed to Heber Kimball, one of the elders or high priests in
Mormondom. No matter whose farm the cattle ™ °*er
how much damage they done to crops it was all settled anu
cably by telling the residents that the cattle were Elder Kun-
ball's. No charge or complaint was ever made,

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

statement was heard, and it did appear that if Heber Kim¬
ball’s cattle should run over the saints bodily and tread them
into the earth, it would have been all right, and not a murmur
would have been heard to escape their lips. When the cattle
reached their destination, the Colonel never went near them, but
allowed Elder Kimball to dispose of them always as if they
were his own, which he could do at a rapid rate. The Mor¬
mons appeared to consider it a great privilege to buy of the
Sainted Elder, although they were paying from one to three
dollars in gold more per head for the cattle than they would
have had to pay to the Gentile drover. Indeed, they would
not have bought the same stock of the Gentile at any price.
When it is known that this people are such complete dupes of
cunning smart men, is it any wonder that they submit to be
plucked like a goose, for the benefit of their quondam keep¬
ers ? Or is it anything strange that their leaders manage to
get immensely rich ? But Utah, notwithstanding her great
city and her immense mining population, has now more than
a supply of cattle for her own consumption, and is beginning
to export cattle to Chicago and the east.

Several thousand head of fat beeves were driven from
Utah over the mountains to Cheyenne and there shipped to
Chicago during the year 1873. So there is no longer a de¬
mand for stock cattle in that Territory. There are few Texan
drovers who handle or drive more cattle from Texas than
Col. Myers — few are more widely or favorably known than
he. He is a man of great experience and solid judgment,
and one that has few enemies, but wherever he is known his
name is spoken with respect, akin to love and admiration.
He is a man true to his pledges, and one who would not reap
advantage from, or oppress a fellow man, simply because he
had the power, or the legal right to so do. When he is given
the title of “A father in Israel” among the drovers, there
will found few, if any, who will dispute his right or his wor¬
thiness of the appellation.

CHAPTER V.

GATHERING CATTLE TO DRIVE TO MARKET — CUTTING OUT —

ROAD BRANDING - STARTING ON THE TRAIL - A CAMP WAGON

- COW BOYS - J. W. TUCKER - WILLIS m’cUTCHEON - J. H.

STEVENS.

We have seen something of the production of live stock
in Texas, let us now before going farther into the history of
the cattle trade, look briefly at the life and labor of a drover,
or one who markets cattle.

Many owners of large ranches and stocks of cattle are
drovers also, not only of their own production, but buy of
others and drive them also, however, the lines of business
are regarded as distinct, and as is the case in other differing
vocations, most men are not adapted by nature to both occu¬
pations. The life of the ranchman is common place and
routine in duties and labors, whilst that of the drover is ever
subject to changes, new combinations of circumstances as
well as new acquaintances and new scenery, always attended
with more or less excitement arising — if not in the events
that do actually occur, then in the hope of good markets,
large profits and sudden fortune.

Let us trace the foot-steps of the drover who has deter¬
mined to drive to the Northern market ; early in the year he
determines to drive, and straightway goes into the section
from which he has decided to bring his herd ; and riding from
one ranch to another, contracts with the owner or his agent
at the ranch, for the delivery at a given place, usually at the
corral, of a certain number of cattle of whatever age he may
have decided to drive. Droves are usually largely com-

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

posed of what are termed “ Beeves,” that is a steer four
years old or older, and it matter not whether he weighs seven
hundred pounds gross or seven tons gross, so he is the proper
age, he is a “beef” and counts one and only one, and it
matters not whether he be lean or fat, thrifty or scrubby, if he
is four years or fourteen years old he is “ beef,” and a drove
thereof is styled a drove of “ Beeves.” Our drover pays
but one price to all ranchmen, and when he has completed his
contracts and whilst the ranchman is gathering the stock to
fill them, the drover rides to some horse ranch and buys the
necessary saddle horses, i. e.: gets up a “ cavvie yard,” also
a wagon for hauling camp supplies, and then secures the
necessary number of cow boys to aid him in driving, not for¬
getting to obtain a cook whose duties on the road in addition
to cooking is to drive the camp wagon, and to take care of
the usual regulation supplies. When the day for receiving
his purchases arrives, the drover with his outfit of hands and
camp equipage puts in an appearance at the designated place,
and all such cattle as will fill the contract are received, and
often many that do not fill the contract are taken simply be¬
cause a custom has obtained to take almost everything the
ranchman has gathered, and a drover who will not do so is
termed very particular and illiberal, a reputation that they
abhor, so thus often the drover is pulled into taking animals
that he never bought, and that his business sense tells him he
should not take. And this is the reason, more than anything
else, why so few really select droves of Texan cattle reach the
Western market. It is no lack of judgment but because it is
the custom to take almost everything that is gathered by the
ranchman. Again, these contracts are usually verbal only ;
and to be particular would lead to wrangles and differences
of memory and understanding, which are not pleasant to the
drover. The ranchman in gathering the stock to fill his con¬
tract, drives together, or, in drover parlance, “ rounds up” a
large number of cattle of all ages and sexes, and whilst from
six to ten cow boys hold the herd together the ranchman with

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST. g j

one or two assistants separate such as are suitable. This
process is termed “ cutting out.”

The process of “cutting out” is one that requires skill and
expert horsemanship, both of which the experienced cow-boy
invariably possesses in a high degree, especially the latter, for
it is indeed a desperately bad cow-pony that he cannot ride.
The reputation of Texas for horsemanship is national, and
needs no eulogiums in this place. To accomplish the great¬
est amount of labor with the least effort and the least amount |
of hard riding, two cow-boys work together. When a beef
is selected to be “cut out,” he is adroitly and quietly maneu¬
vered to the outskirts of the round-up, and when the oppor¬
tune moment occurs, the cow-boys dash at him, and, before
he is aware of it, is on the outside of, and separated from the
herd ; but no sooner does he discover the situation, than he
makes a desperate effort to regain his comrades, and just here
is where the skill of the cow-boy is put in requisition. Whilst
one rides beside the steer, the other rides just behind him, to
prevent or check any sudden change of direction that the
frantically excited bovine may chose to make in his efforts to
to get back with the herd, which he tries desperately to do,
and persists in trying so long as there is a shadow of a chance
to outrun his pursuers. Often the race is close and the con¬
test exciting, and sometimes the outer circle of the round-up
will be run more than once, before the beef will be induced to
abandon the effort to get back into the herd. But when he
finds himself outrun and out generaled, he will toss up his
head and look for the comrades which have been previously
cut out, and are being held a few hundred feet distant. In
the beginning of the cut-out, a few gentle cows or working
oxen are driven a short space from the round-up and held, to
form a nucleus, to which those cut out gather. Cutting out
is always done on an open, smooth spot of prairie, and never
done inside a corral, as a Northern man handles or separates
his cattle. When North with their herds, a Texan drover
always prefers the prairie to any inclosure to handle his stock.

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

for there, mounted on his pony, he feels at home and knows
just how to manage ; besides he has a fixed, constitutional
prejudice against doing anything on foot that can possibly be
done on horseback, not to speak of the almost universal fear
they entertain of being among their stock on foot. They are
justified, to some extent at least, in indulging this wholesome
fear ; for but few Texan bullocks will hesitate, when inclosed
alone in a strong corral, to show decided belligerent proclivi¬
ties, or to furiously charge the venturesome wight who dares
to show himself on foot within the inclosure. Occasionally,
whilst loading a herd upon cars, a bullock will become de¬
tached from his comrades, and, almost invariably, so soon as
he finds himself alone, without ability to escape, will manifest
•a disposition to fight anything or anybody that may chance to
be in sight. Often considerable difficulty is experienced in
getting him to any desired place. A Northern man, unac¬
customed to handlingTexan cattle, will often rush into the cor¬
ral wherein is a single bullock. He will have scarcely got
cleverly in the corral before the bullock, with arched back,
downset head, extended nostrils, and glaring, fiery eyes,
darts toward his supposed adversary, who, suddenly taking in
his dangerous situation, but too late to retreat by the way of
his entree, rushes post haste to the nearest fence, which is
usually so high he cannot spring to the top of it ; but reach¬
ing the top with only his finger tips, draws his body as high as
possible, and clinging to his hold with frantic grip, yells lustily
for help. In the meantime the bullock, failing to pin the body
of the man to the wall, puts in vicious strokes with his horns
at the dangling coat-tails and posterior of the thoroughly
alarmed man. When the frightened fellow is relieved from
his perilous attitude, he finds, on casual examination, his coat¬
tails in shreds, and the seat of his unmentionables ripped in a
shocking manner, much resembling a railroad map of a west¬
ern commercial metropolis. He does not want to either sit
down or lay down on his back. This excites his profound dis¬
gust, and he is an immediate applicant to borrow or buy a

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

RECEIVING A RAILROAD MAP.

new suit of clothes. At all events he is fully decided that
driving Texan critters on foot is not his best forte, and he
has a modified opinion of his own prowess as a live stock
driver. At another time, when he attempts to drive or cut
out a Texan bullock, he decidedly prefers the horseback mode.
But to return to the main subject.

Those cut out are held under herd until others are added
from other quarters, and when finally the required number is
got together they are taken to the corral, herded in day time
and corraled at night until the day of delivery to the drover
comes, when, as I have before stated, he is expected to take
all gathered for him.

As fast as the drover receives the various detachments
of his drove, they are by his own men driven to some previ¬
ously secured corral, and when all are in and the herd is com¬
plete then the job of road-branding begins, which by the aid
of plenty of help, is soon completed. All things being ready.

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

«4

a start is made, but not before the drover has secured and
recorded a bill of sale from each ranchman or his lawful agent
from whom the stock was purchased. The bill of sale sets forth
not only the ranch brands, but all the ear marks. The ap¬
pearance of a bill of sale is much like Egyptian hieroglyph¬
ics. The more a northern man looks at one the less he knows
about it. But it is necessary for the drover to have it, for
without it the officers of the law would regard him as a thief,
and of course arrest him. Now that a start is once made,
hard driving for the first few days is the custom. For several
reasons this is done ; first, in order to get the stock off of
their accustomed range, whereon they feel at home, and know
all the country, and are much harder to keep under control
than when on strange ground. Second, it is done to break
or accustom them to being driven, at the same time to
tire them by hard traveling so they will feel at nightfall like
lying down and resting instead of running off, as they would
be sure to do if they were not fatigued. We have heard dro¬
vers say that they traveled the first three or four days at the
rate of twenty-five or thirty miles per day. But as soon as
the cattle are driven off of their usual range, and are got on
to the regular trail, the distance of a day’s drive is reduced to
ten to fifteen miles each day. They are permitted to go out
on the range in the morning early and to feed, care being
taken that they be kept headed in the direction the drover is
desirous of going. They will feed along for two or three
miles, then turn into the trail and travel three or four miles,
when after drinking their fill of water, they will lie down and
rest from two to four hours in the middle of the day. Get
ting up from their beds, they soon turn from the trail upon
the grass and take their afternoon feed preparatory to being
rounded up for the night. When upon the bed ground one
or more men remain with them during the silent hours of the
night, being relieved by regular relays from the camp, much
as the soldier upon guard is relieved. With each herd are
about two men to every three hundred cattle, and each man

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

should have at least two saddle horses, which he rides alter¬
nately, they living exclusively upon the grass. The extra
horses not under the saddle are called the cavvie-yard, and
are driven behind the camp wagon, which is drawn by one or
more yokes of oxen, and is often a cumbersome, rude cart,
made with an eye to strength rather than beauty, and is made
the receptacle of the provisions and camp outfit.

To drive a drove of cattle properly more patience and
perseverance than labor is required.

The cattle are often shamefully abused on the road. Es¬
pecially is this the case when Mexican help is employed, for
they will not drive any other way than in a rush, and have no
more ieeling or care for dumb brutes, either cattle or horses,
than they have for a stone. Their heartless cruelty is prover¬
bial, and we have yet to see a drove of cattle driven by them
or a cavvie-yard used by them that was not as poor as wood.
They are the dearest help in a long run that a drover can em¬
ploy, although they will work for considerable less wages
than white boys. But unless their “boss” keeps them under
strict surveillance they are intolerably impudent and mean.

An Indian would not be more treacherous than are some
of the Mexican cow boys. Several instances of brutal mur¬
ders of the men in charge of herds have been perpetrated by
the Mexican Cow boys, employed to drive to Western Kansas.
Nothing but gold will pay them for their services. The idea
that greenbacks are of value does not, and cannot be made
to enter their understanding, and they will accept one-third
or one-half wages, if it is only paid in gold. But we would
not do them injustice, for many of them are good faithful help,
and true to the interests of their employers. But as a rule
they are unprofitable as well as unreliable help.

Many traders of moderate capital do a profitable business
in Texas in getting together herds ready for the trail, then sell¬
ing out to some regular drover. Quite a number of young
energetic men, have thus made considerable sums of money.
In fact laid the foundation of future fortunes in this manner.

OK THE WEST

' SOUTHWEST.

Perhaps no better specimen of a local Texan trader could
be presented than J. W. Tucker, of Trio City, Texas. Born
in Georgia, but reared to young manhood in Alabama, he
turned his steps toward Texas at the age oi nineteen, and
spent several years in traveling over the State, running upon
first one stage route, then upon another, thus getting a com¬
plete knowledge of the geography of Texas, as well as of the
ways of the world. Becoming dissatisfied with the precarious

J. W. TUCKER.

life of the stage-driver, he turned his attention to the local
cattle trade, and for five years did little else than furnish herds
to drovers, who forwarded them to market. Having thus ob¬
tained a thorough, practical knowledge of the cattle business,
and acquired sufficient means, in the year 1872 Mr. Tucker
determined to try the trail with a herd, on his own account,
and we need only add that such were the results of his first
effort, that the succeeding year found him again upon the
market with another herd of eighteen hundred head of fine

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

cattle, for which he soon found a buyer at satisfactory prices.
But the spirit of speculation was abroad in his breast, and but
little time elapsed — after selling out — before he purchased
about two thousand head of superior cattle in Western Kan¬
sas, which in consequence of the wide spread financial panic
of 1873, he was not able to dispose of at prices that would
iustify him in selling. Fortunately an opportunity presented
itself, and he put them to feed in large distilleries at Peoria,
Ilfinois.

Mr, Tucker is a remarkable quiet drover, seldom having
anything to say, and never heard talking in a boisterous man¬
ner. But his quiet turn and affable manners, mark him as a
yonng man of generous impulses and manly aspirations, and
one who will make good impressions and enduring friendship
wherever he goes.

Wherever you meet a man who in his childhood was train¬
ed to business and labor as a cattle drover, you find a being
whose second nature and greatest delight is to be with live
stock. No endearments, of home, or profits of a more quiet
or routine business, can retain or allure him from persistently
following his favorite pursuit ; no matter if it is not half so
profitable, really, as are other more quiet, unexciting employ¬
ments. He loves the drove and the trail, the risk, excite¬
ment, and ever changing scenes and circumstances incident to
the drover’s life.

Willis McCutcheon, of Austin, Texas, is a native of the
Lone Star State, and was reared to the business of farming
and stock ranching. He accompanied his father with a herd
of cattle, which was one among the few driven North as early
as the year 1857. At that time Willis was but a boy, but his
memory of events occurring on that trip — then the greatest
one of his life — is as distinct as though they had transpired
but yesterday. They crossed the Missouri river near Inde¬
pendence, and met a purchaser for the herd at Quincy, Ill.,
at the remunerative price of twenty-five dollars per head, in
gold, which afforded a snug profit. Thi= early induction

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

fato the life of the drover, had a marked effect in shaping
McCutcheon’s future; for no sooner had he arrived at
the years of maturity, than he selected a location in the
stock regions of Texas, and went largely into stock raising.
Always selling at home when an opportunity presented itself
but driving to other markets when the home purchaser failed
to put in an appearance. In connection with his associates in

WILLIS McCUTCHEON.

business, he has gathered and marketed many tens of thou¬
sands of cattle.

During the civil war he furnished the Confederate army
with thousands ot beeves, and at its close began driving
cattle. In 1866, when he learned of the blockade in South¬
east Kansas and Southwest Missouri, he had his herd turned
westward, and drove around the settlements of Western Kan¬
sas and landed it in Iowa, where good prices were obtained.
During the year 1865 he drove several herds to Mexico; also
made several trips to New Orleans with cattle. Not liking

• SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

his experiences in 1866, he stayed upon his ranch the follow¬
ing year; but in 1868 engaged with his associates in driving
about twelve thousand head of cattle to the mouth of Red
river, where they were delivered to certain Chicago gentle¬
men, to whom they had been previously contracted. The
cattle were put upon river steamers, in crowded, hot quarters,
without room to feed, water, or lay down to rest, and shipped
to Cairo, Ill., and there carried up into th> central and east¬
ern portion of that State. This importation of cattle into
Illinois was a sad misfortune to the sections of country that
received them, and a calamity in its effects to the State of
Texas. Just how this was, will appear elsewhere. How¬
ever McCutcheon did well and returned to his home satisfied
with his summer’s work. But the habit of driving cattle —
much like that of shipping them— once formed, is hard to
break up. Home and life on the ranch seems too quiet, and
the excitement of a trip off is longed for, to break the dull
monotony of existence. So the years of 1869, ’70, ’71, ’72
and ’73, found McCutcheon’s herds en route for the Western
Kansas market, in which he has disposed of about two thou¬
sand head annually.

Willis McCutcheon is one of those substantial, matter-of-
fact, every day kind of men, that you feel instinctively will do
to tie to, and when you look into his frank, open countenance,
a sense of his straightforward manner of life and business in¬
tegrity impresses you. You feel that in him — a true, big
hearted man, who could not have pleasure in a mean, dishon¬
orable transaction — you can rely with safety.

The civil war was, in its effects upon the agricultural in¬
terests of the South, a complete revolutionizer, and bank¬
rupted Many whose lands were valuable for purposes of
cultivation, and whose wealth consisted in agricultural lands
and slaves, suddenly found themselves without laborers, and
their lands so depreciated in market value, as to be
almost worthless. The owners of these departed fortunes,
in many cases became vagabond loafers, spending their dis-

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

pairing hours lounging in bar-rooms, hotels and other public
places ; never tiring of the story of their calamity, and ever
trying to maintain the semblance at least of that genteel
dignity, once the pride of a Southern slave owner. Although
the effort generally results in but a seedy appearance, arid
frequent loud declarations of their “high tone.” Other plant¬
ers who became bankrupt, or nearly so, by the war, were able

J. H. STEVENS.

to rise, superior to their misfortunes, and after fully taking in
the situation, turn their energies and efforts to some promis¬
ing field of industry, and therein put forth noble efforts to re¬
trieve their damaged fortunes. To this latter class belongs
J. H. Stevens, whose magnificent plantation or farm of
fifteen hundred acres, once in high state of cultivation, became,
to him worthless, nor can it be sold for anything now, although,
before the war, twenty dollars per acre in gold was its market
value. It is not profitable to hire laborers and cultivate it.

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

So it is allowed to lay awaste, whilst its owner has turned his
face to stock-driving ; sometimes horses are driven exclu¬
sively, and sold in Missouri or Illinois. In later years cattle
have received his undivided attention, of which he annually
drives about four thousand head ; first to western Kansas,
then if no buyer is found there, he goes on to some one of
the more northerly territories, or delivers them to some Gov¬
ernment contractor, to be turned over to the Indians.

Mr. Stevens has been a constant driver since 1 868, and
has^ each year driven larger herds, or more of them, than the
previous year. He is a substantial solid man, of good practi¬
cal sense and fine judgment, and one that has a large list of
friends. His quiet, affable manner, and air of genuine cour¬
tesy, attract the attention of observing men, who are always
able to discern in him the true North Carolina gentleman.

CHAPTER VI.

HERD ON THE TRAIL - SWIMMING A RIVER — STORM AND STAM¬
PEDE - ARRIVAL IN KANSAS - APPRECIATIVE FRIENDS OF ABI¬
LENE - EX-GOVERNOR CRAWFORD AND OTHERS - A CHICAGO

SWINDLER - A POPULAR SCOUNDREL - NUMBER OF CATTLE

DRIVEN 1867 - WHAT WAS DONE WITH THEM - BLACKMAIL¬
ING RAILROAD OFFICIALS - -J. D. REED - MAJ. SETH MABRY.

We left the herd fairly started upon the trail for the
northern market. Of these trails there are several, one lead¬
ing to Baxter Springs and Chetopa, another called the “ old
Shawnee trail” leaving Red river and running eastward,
crossing the Arkansas not far above Fort Gibson, thence
bending westward up the Arkansas river ; but the principal
trail now traveled is more direct and is known as “ Chisholm
trail,” so named from a semi-civilized Indian who is said to
have traveled it first. It is more direct, has more prairie, less
timber, more small streams and less large ones, and altogether
better grass and fewer flies — no civilized Indian tax or wild
Indian disturbances — than any other route yet driven over,
and is. also much shorter in distance because direct from Red
river to Kansas. Twenty-five to thirty-five days is the usual
time required to bring a drove from Red River to the Southern
line of Kansas, a distance of between 250 and 300 miles, and
an excellent country to drive over. So many cattle have been
driven over the trail in the last lew years that a broad high¬
way is tread out looking much like a national highway ; so
plain, a fool could not fail to keep in it.

One remarkable feature is observable as being worthy of
note, and that is how completely the herd becomes broken

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

to follow the trail. Certain cattle will take the lead, and oth¬
ers will select certain places in the line, and certain ones bring
up the rear, and the same cattle can be seen at their post,
marching along like a colnmn of soldiers, every day during
the entire journey, unless they become lame, when they will
fall back to the rear. A herd of one thousand cattle will
stretch out from one to two miles whilst traveling on the trail,
and is a very beautiful sight, inspiring the drover with enthu¬
siasm akin to that enkindled in the breast of the military hero
by the sight of marching columns of men. Certain cow-boys
are appointed to ride beside the leaders and so control the
herd, whilst others ride beside and behind, keeping everything
in its place and moving on, the camp wagon and “ cavvie-
yard” bringing up the rear. When an ordinary creek or
small river is reached the leaders are usually easily induced to
go in, and although it may be swimming, yet they scarce
hesitate, but plunge through to the northern shore and con¬
tinue the journey, the balance of the herd following as fast as
they arrive. Often, however, at large rivers, when swollen
by floods, difficulty is experienced in getting over, especially
is this the case when the herd gets massed together. Then
they become unwieldy and are. hard to induce to take the
water. Sometimes days are spent, and much damage to the
condition of the herd done, in getting across a single stream.
But if the herd is well broken and properly managed, this
difficulty is not often experienced.

As soon as the leaders can be induced to take to the
water, and strike out for the opposite shore, the balance will
follow with but little trouble. Often the drover can induce
the leaders to follow him into and across the river, by riding
ahead of them into the water and, if need be, swimming his
horse in the lead to the opposite shore, whilst the entire herd
follow much in the same order that it travels on the trail. It
sometimes occurs that the herd will become unmanageable and
frightened after entering the water and refuse to strike out to
either shore, but gather around their leaders and swim in a

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

circle round and round very similar to milling on the ground
when frightened. The aspect is that of a mass of heads and
horns, the bodies being out of sight in the water, and it is not
uncommon to loose numbers by drowning. When the herd
gets to milling in the water — to break this mill and induce the
leaders to launch out for the shore — the drover swims his
cow pony into the center of the mill and, if possible, frightens
the mass of struggling whirling cattle, into separation. Not
unfrequently the drover is unhorsed and compelled to swim
for his life ; often taking a swimming steer by the tail, and
thus be safely and speedily towed to the shore.

Swimming herds of cattle across swollen rivers is not
listed as one of the pleasurable events in the drover’s trip to
the northern market. It is the scarcity of large rivers that
constitutes one of the most powerful arguments in favor of
the Chisholm trail. Nevertheless it is not entirely free from
this objection, especially during rainy seasons. When the
herd is over the stream the next job is to get the camp wagon
over. This is done by drawing it near the water’s edge and,
after detaching the oxen and swimming them over, a number
of picket ropes are tied together, sufficient to reach across
the river, and attached to the wagon which is then pushed
into the water and drawn to the opposite shore, whereupon
the team is attached and the wagon drawn on to solid ground.

Few occupations are more cheerful, lively and pleasant
than that of the cow-boy on a fine day or night ; but when
the storm comes, then is his manhood and often his skill and
bravery put to test. When the night is inky dark and the
lurid lightning flashes its zig-zag course athwart the heavens,
and the coarse thunder jars the earth, the winds moan fresh
and lively over the prairie, the electric balls dance from tip to
tip of the cattle’s horns — then the position of the cow-boy on
duty is trying far more than romantic.

When the storm breaks over his head, the least occur¬
rence unusual, such as the breaking of a dry weed or stick,
or a sudden and near flash of lightning, will start the herd.

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

as if by magic, all at an instant, upon a wild rush, and woe
to the horse, or man, or camp that may be in their path. The
only possible show for safety is to mount and ride with them
until you can get outside the stampeding column. It is cus¬
tomary to train cattle to listen to the noise of the herder, who
sings in a voice more sonorous than musical a lullaby con¬
sisting of a few short monosyllables. A stranger to the busi¬
ness of stock-driving will scarce credit the statement that the
wildest herd will not run so long as they can hear distinctly
the voice of the herder above the din of the storm. But if by
any mishap the herd gets off on a real stampede, it is by bold,
dashing, reckless riding in the darkest of nights, and by
adroit, skillful management that it is checked and brought
under control. The moment the herd is off, the cow-boy
turns his horse at full speed down the retreating column, and
seeks to get up beside the leaders, which he does not attempt
to stop suddenly, for such an effort would be futile, but turns
them to the left or right hand, and gradually curves them into
a circle, the circumference of which is narrowed down as fast
as possible, until the whole herd is rushing wildly round and
round on as small a piece of ground as possible for them to occu¬
py. Then the cow-boy begins his lullaby note in a loud voice,
which has a great effect in quieting the herd. When all is
still, and the herd well over its scare, they are returned to
their bed-ground, or held where stopped until daylight.

Often a herd becomes scattered and run in different
directions, in which case the labor is great to collect them,
some will run a distance of twenty or thirty miles before
stopping and turning out to rest, after which they will travel
on at a rapid rate. Many times great loss in numbers and
condition is sustained by a single stampede, and a herd, when
once the habit of running is formed, will do but little good in
thrift — if they do not become poor and bony and get the ap¬
pearance of gray hounds. And the habit, once contracted, is
next to impossible to bre ak up and get the cattle to be quiet
and thrifty, save by pu tting them in small herds, or fenced

IOO

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

pastures, and this will not always remedy the evil or break
up the habit. ,

During rainy, stormy seasons, herds of cattle are apt to
form the habit of stampeding every cloudy or stormy night.
And although they may have long been off of the trail, held
on good grazing ground, yet they are very liable to form the
habit of running. It is generally the case that less than a
score, often less than a half dozen of old, wild, long legged
beeves, do the mischief, by getting a chronic fright, from which
they never do recover ; nor are they ever afterwards satisfied
unless they are on the run. They would rather run than eat,
any time, no matter how empty of food they may be. Stam¬
peding becomes a mania with them, and, day or night, they
seem to be looking for or studying up a pretext to set off on
a forty mile jaunt. How well one stampeder gets to know
every other stampeder in the herd, is astonishing, and they
may be seen close together at all times, as if counseling how
to raise Cain, and get off on a “ burst of speed.” The mo¬
ment anything happens that may startle the herd, no matter
how little, every chronic stampeder in the herd sets off
at full speed, hooking and goring every steer before or upon
either side of him. It does seem as if they had become
possessed of several such devils as stampeded the swine into
the sea in ancient Judeah. It is actual economy to shoot
down, if you cannot otherwise dispose of, a squad of these
vicious stampeders ; and often the prudent herder will order
a single car( cut out, and ship off every stampeder he may
have in his herd ; not that he expects to get anything of much
account for them, for they are generally very poor and lean,
but simply to abate them and their pernicious example
and influence on the balance of the herd. The way the cow¬
boy takes sublime pleasure in prodding a lot of stampeders
into a car and sending them off, he cares not where, is beyond
expression and beggars description. You should hear him
pronounce his parting blessing on the brutes as the engine
moves off with the car in which they are confined. The «x-

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

IOI

pression would not create an exalted opinion of the cow-boy’s
piety. For he could tell you of the unnumbered sleepless
hours they have cost him, and how many times they have
caused him to leave his couch of sweet slumber, mount his
horse and ride through darkness and storm to overtake and
bring back the herd from following the racy stampeders, and
now that they are gone, words fail to tell his joyous delight.

Drovers consider that the cattle do themselves great in¬
jury by running round in a circle, which is termed in cow-boy
parlance, “milling,” and it can only be stayed by standing at
a distance and hallooing or singing to them. The writer has
many times sat upon the fence of a shipping yard and sang to
an enclosed herd whilst a train would be rushing by. And
it is surprising how quiet the herd will be so long as they can
hear the human voice ; but if they fail to hear it above the
din of the train, a rush is made, and the yards bursted asunder,
unless very strong. Singing hymns to Texan steers is the
peculiar forte of a genuine cow-boy, but the spirit of true
piety does not abound in the sentiment.

We have read of singing psalms to dead horses, but
singing to a lot ot Texan steers is an act of piety that few be¬
side a Western drover are capable of. But ’tis said that
“ Music hath charms that soothe the savage breast,” or words
to that effect, and why not “soothe” a stampeding Texan
steer? We pause, repeating, why not?

After a drive of twenty-five to one hundred days, the
herd arrives in Western Kansas, whither, in advance, its owner
has come, and decided what point at which he will make his
headquarters. Straightway a good herding place is sought
out, and the herd, upon its arrival, placed thereon, to remain
until a buyer is found, who is diligently sought after ; but if
not found as soon as the cattle are fat, they are shipped to
market. But the drover has a decided preference for selling
on the prairie, for there he feels at home and self possessed ;
but when he goes on the cars he is out of his element, and
doing something he don’t understand much about, and don’t

102

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

wish to learn, especially at the price it has cost many cattle
shippers.

Before going further into the history of the development
of the Western cattle trade, simple justice demands that we
mention some of the very few who did have an appreciative
conception of the Abilene enterprise. First on the list is ex-
Governor Crawford, then Governor of Kansas, who seemed
to comprehend in the fullest sense the magnitude and import¬
ance of the undertaking, and freely gave a letter commending
the point selected and the parties engaged thereat. This
action of the Governor brought down upon his head the bitter
maledictions of certain pot-house politicians, whose pet
schemes, shaped by the famous “Texas Cattle Law” of Kan¬
sas — passed by the legislature during the previous winter —
was ruined by the success of Abilene, and all the bright
visions of wholesale plunder dissipated as is the mist by the
sunshine. Others thought the Governor had made a grave
error in encouraging Texan drovers to bring their stock to
Kansas. But to such he said : “I regard the opening of that
cattle trail into and across Western Kansas, of as much value
to the State as is the Missouri river.” But sound and sensi¬
ble as this statement now appears, it was then regarded as
heretical to the best interests of Kansas. Few now will
maintain that his words were not prophetic and true.
Governor Crawford is one of the few pure and patriotic states¬
men of which Kansas can boast, and deserves the highest
confidence of her citizens.

Among the editorial fraternity, M. W. Reynolds, then of
the Lawrence “Journal,” now of the Parsons “ Sun,” was a
staunch, true friend of Abilene. Unpaid and unsolicited, he
was ever ready to write up in kind, truthful words the steady
progress and development of the Abilene cattle trade. And
justice forbids that we should fail to remember Mr. Prescott,
of the Leavenworth “Commercial,” who often spoke effective
words in behalf of Abilene. Other editors casually noticed
it, but generally in an unappreciative manner, often showing

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

103

how incredulous they were of the ultimate success of the
enterprise. A correspondent of the New York “Tribune,”
Mr. Samuel Wilkison, took notes in August, 1867, of the
enterprise, and what was proposed to be accomplished, and
wrote it up in a highly sensational style in a column and a
half article under the title of “ The story of a Cattle Specula¬
tor.” Nothing was more evident to the readers of that effu¬
sion than the patent fact that its author had more stupid in¬
credulity than brains. He regarded the whole affair as a vis¬
ionary farce of which nothing tangible could be realized.

We have in a former paper said that Texan drovers, as a
class, were clanish and easily gulled by promises of high
prices for their stock. As an illustration of these state¬
ments, we cite a certain secret meeting of the drovers,
held at one of the camps in ’67, whereat they all, after talk¬
ing the matter over, pledged themselves to hold their cattle
for three cents per pound, gross, and to sell none for less.
One of the principal arguments used was that their cattle
must be worth that price, or those Illinoisans would not be
expending so much money and labor in preparing facilities for
shipping them. To this resolution they adhered persistently,
refusing $2.75 per 100 lbs, for fully 10,000 head, and after¬
wards failing to get their three cents on the prairie for their
cattle, shipped them to Chicago on their own account and
sold them there at $2,25 to $2.50 per ioo lbs, and out of that
paid a freight of $150 per car, realizing from ten to fifteen
dollars per head less than they had haughtily refused upon
the prairie. Some of them refused to accept these prices,
and packed their cattle upon their own account. Their disap¬
pointment and chagrin at their failure to force a buyer to pay
three cents per pound for their cattle, was great and bitter,
but their refusal to accept the offer of 2 ^ cents per pound
was great good fortune to the would-be buyers, for at that
price $ 100,000 would have been lost on ten thousand head of
cattle. An attempt was made the following year to form a
combination to put up prices ; but a burnt child dreads the

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

104

fire, and the attempted combination failed, and every rover

their susceptibility to being
gulled by fine promises. In the fall of .867.; »hen Texan
cattle were selling at from $24 to $28 per head in icago,
well dressed, smooth-tongued individual put in an Wea”n
at Abilene and claimed to be the representative of a certa
rbotrus') packing company of Chicago, and was desirous of
purchasing several thousand head of cattle. He wol| W
Chicago prices at Abilene, or rather than be particular five
or ten dollars per head more than the same cattle 1 won d se 1
for in Chicago. It was astonishing to see how eagerly cer¬
tain drovers fell into his trap and bargained their cattle 1 off ^to
him at $35 per head at Abilene, fully $.5 more

would pay out. But mark you, the buyer so ch,ld'h^5^

bland," could only pay the little sum of twenty-five dollars
down on 400 to 800 head, but would pay the ^balance ra*he"
he got to Leavenworth with the cattle, he being afraid to
bring his wealth up in that wild country In the meantime
they would load the cattle on the cars, bill them m die na
of the buyer, and of course everything would be all right.
Strange as it may appear, several of the hitherto _ most sus¬
picious drovers of 1867, fell in with this swindlers scheme
and were actually about to let him ship their herds off o„ a
mere verbal promise, when the parties in charge of the Yards
seeing that the drovers were about to be defrauded out of
their stock, posted them to have the cattle billed in their own
name, and then if the pay was not forthcoming they would
have possession of their own stock without troublesome liti¬
gation, as every man of sense anticipated they would have.
When the swindler after various excuses for his failures to
pay at Leavenworth, Quincy and Chicago, ah the while trying
to get the cattle into his own hands, found that he must come
down with the cash, he very plainly told the Texan to go to
hades with his cattle. Instead of obeying this warm parting
injuction of his new found, high-priced buyer, he turned his

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST. 10$

cank over to a regular commission man and received about
$26 per head at Clucago less freight charges, or almost $iS
per head at Abilene instead of $35 per head.

But we did not think the drovers who were saved from
the loss of their entire herds by a disinterested friend, were
grateful to him for his kindness. They were too mad at their
own stupidity to be conscious of feelings of gratitude. And
now whilst speaking on the subject of swindlers and ingrati-
lmer V" ment'on anoth=r in^nce occurring two years
, .Cfr^,ai.n ™an (lf 11 be ProPer to call a rascal a man)

krkiddTf m Ktra‘ "Hn0iS Kn yearS before the Particu-
lar incident we are about to relate occurred, putin an appear-

ance at Abilene during the fall of 1869, and after spending
money lavishly at the saloons proceeded to purchase several
droves of cattle at more liberal figures than others were abTe

bri^f beforteheab S *“■! W°UM juStify- The *ime was -5uite
t„ A KU \ the m°st p°Pular man ‘hat ever came

. , uT' Am,°ng h‘S P“rchases was a large drove of nine

hundred beeves, for which he agreed to pay thirty dollars per
ead but actually only paid two thousand dollars on the pur¬
chase and was about to ship the stock off in his own name
when the party m charge of the yards gave the seller a con¬
fidential hint to be careful and to be safe, which he acted upon
but not until he had told the would-be purchaser who had
put him on his guard; at the same time repeating what had

drnf '° M dT by the yardman in confidence at hfs own soli¬
citation adding that he (the seller) did not believe the state

::r ryrdtr o(c°u™ ^

mad and drunk and swore he was persecuted i

without just cause, and wanted to shoot the fellow who^red
ay he was a proper subject to be watched in business trans
acbons. Several Texans espoused his cause and one gave
him over twelve thousand dollars worth of cattle on short

o» of T " him Bve *hOUSand doIla- i" cash as a

a” his lri M° tWO thousand dollars i" cash to repay

at his leisure. Now mark the sequel, not one single doZ

io6

sketches of the cattle trade

Fiji Ssstfrrsssp

-aSSr-sr£ft-”-s

n0t “ Tthe mty that occurred did the Texan ever show
“of ^itSor being saved front a swindling scheme^
but were more generally sour and : snsp.etous of
that prompted their real friend to forewarn them.

Of the 35,000 cattle that arrtved in 1867 at Abilene
about 30«a head were bought and shipped, to Chicago by ^

thTlargerponfon was sent to Chic'ago and either sold on the
markefor packed for the account of the drovers. The lat
proved more unfortunate for the drover. The cattle we
thin in flesh and made only the lower grades of beet, tor
which there was but little demand, at ruinously low figures.

Those who sold on the market did better than those who

packed yet they lost money heavily. Another portion of the
drive of 1 867 went into winter quarters. A few were taken
north to the Platte country for the Indians, but quite a large
number were packed at ] unction City, where an enterprising
fiZ of citizens, headed by a now well-known cattle man, but
, , f Indianapolis, Ind., had erected a temporary pack¬

inghouse, in which several thousand cattle were s'au|hter^
the product thereof being shipped direct to New York. But
thisexperiment resulted unsatisfactorily to both packers and
drovers The cattle were not as good or fat as both parties

had anticipated, and it proved a disastrous loss to all con¬
cerned A few cattle were packed at the same place the fol¬
lowing season but the establishment was soon abandoned,
and finally torn down. Had the drovers of .867 gone into

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST. 107

winter quarters and kept their stock until the following sea¬
son a fine profit instead of a loss would have been realized.
But it was upon the tongue of nearly every one that the oat-
tle would not stand the rigors of a northern winter, and inas¬
much as there was no precedent by which to be governed it
was thought best to sell and pack them as before described.
The summer season of 1867 was one of extreme sultry weather
and great rain fall, flooding the country, and producing an
immense growth of grass, which was soft and washy, utterly
failing to produce any tallow in the animal consuming it, and
when the hot weather set in the grass became hard and un¬
eatable, and when the first frosts touched it not a single bit
of nutriment was left in it ; but little better than dry shavings
for food. In addition to poor grass, the rain storms by
day, the bellowing thunder and vivid lightning of the often
recurring storms at night, got all the cattle on the prairie in
the way of stampeding. When this habit becomes chronic
it is impossible to fatten the herd, often impossible to keep
them together. All these causes, and others not enumera¬
ted, combined to make the final wind-up of the cattle market
of 1867 at Abilene unsatisfactory, and to none more so than
the parties who expended so much money in creating the
necessary facilities for conducting a cattle market. Their
losses were very severe ; far more s© than if they had had a
criterion by which to be governed. Shipping cattle at the
rate of one thousand each shipment, costing nearly a score
of thousands of dollars, and then having them sold for a con¬
siderable sum less than the freight bill, is a lively way to do
business, but a poor way to get rich quick.

Although the business of shipping did not begin until the
fall, the first train being shipped on the 5th of September,
nearly one thousand cars were loaded, yet the enterprise was
considered a failure, and every one, save the parties directly
interested, freely expressed themselves that no cattle would
be driven there the next year, and many people seemed to
rejoice over the misfortune that they supposed had befallen

lo8 SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

the enterprise, offering hypocrhica. wotds^of

-dotdPwTth profound wisdom, and sagely

came suddenly endow^^ ^ NPotwithstanding the practical

ejaculated Y ibm of cattle shipping over their

demonstration of the leasib y R u in St. Louis

road, yet the managers o the Y

were still S season ; but there was

regarding it as the b g J „ purchaser of

r5=ESbtt=!ir=s^

that a man who would be willing to “sell a railroad company.

oris ire and “d^"taat!°ns'iibord.1fate railr0ad official appeared
ItTbilene, and expressed a “ ^dTheTany

£SS3=:s

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

expect a present of an amount of cash equal to one-half fh-
sun, for which he had asked. This prove’d to LZ ££
nate step, and was the only one of the kind ever made bv
that cattle trader for no sooner had the next season opened
than th,s same official reappeared at Abilene, demanding one-
half the gross amount, which the parties were to receivf from

ng the year 1868. And when this modest request was de
chned the offical left, muttering threats of vengeance and
d,d actually go to a point twenty-five miles west of Abilene

After several unavailing remonstrances with the official
about his conduct-which he knew to be in violation of the
provisions of a written contract existing between the railroad

theTo7paanya\ LPLtieS “ Ab!Iene-the general officers of
the company at St. Louis were visited, and the matter placed
before the executive committee. It eventuated in the official
receiving a polite invitation to tender his resignation which
course, under the peculiar circumstances, he did

' widelv“kn7 f DSe thiS Chapter With brier sk<*ches of two

of whomTs r 7 ReT* 7 '^d drovers and traders, one

years, but ai Alabamia'„“tE
wen. straightway on a stock ranch^hU Zf JeS

n cattfe, he keeps up his stocks in Texas. Of cattle he ha*
ou ten t ousand head, and of horses a stock sufficiently
arge to keep good the supply of saddle ponies with which
o care for his cattle stocks. Although his ranch cjnsiste of
mlr th^o®and acres of land, hif stock ranged an

Tex“ h^eRe dCOUntry' a°f y belon«in& *o the state of
lexas. Mr. Reed contented himself for many years uoon

he d”"? JherS h‘S fam'Iy n°W' aS then- reside^ but in ,861

ho decided to try the project of driving to Loffisia^ which

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

proved moderately satisfactory, and would perhaps have been
repeated in future years, but for the outbreak of the civil
war. In this Reed, in common with almost every other
Southern man, took part ; but was not long in the service
before he received a severe wound which disabled him for
military duty, and he soon found himself back upon his ranch
lully satisfied with military life and its fruits. Having imbibed

j. D. REED.

the spirit of trading and roaming away from home, Reed was
soon off with a herd of beeves for Mexico, which trade he
continued in until the close of the war, when he abandoned
it and turned his herds toward New Orleans, to which market
he continued to ship and drive for five consecutive years.
Butin 1871 he changed his plans of operation and turned
his herds toward Western Kansas. Each year since has
witnessed on an average, fully thirty-five hundred head 01
beeves en route for Western Kansas, driven by Mr. Reed’s

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

I I I

cow-boys. Whatever frontier cattle town can secure his
patronage and influence regard him a host in its behalf. He
drives none but good beeves, and is, upon arrival, ready to
sell out all, or in part, or if prices do not suit him to sell, he
will turn about and buy. He is not particular which he does,
so he is doing something, for he is a man of fine energy and
great perserverance. A man who is familiar with all phases
of life, and is always in to see, know, and learn everything
that may be going on, among the highest to the lowest, where
he may be stopping. He is one of that type of men that
make friends in all spheres of life, and few there are who
have a larger list of warm admirers than J. D. Reed, of Goliad,
Texas. During the year 1872, he handled fully eight thous¬
and head of beeves and put fourteen hundred head into win¬
ter quarters the same fall. During the year 1873 he drove
about three thousand head, and selling out soon after arriving
in Western Kansas, was in good shape to join his friend A.
H. Pierce in buying seven thousand head at panic prices to
put into winter quarters. Certainly money in large amounts
was made upon the cattle bought during the months of Octo¬
ber and November, 1873. In 1871, Mr. Reed wintered
about sixteen hundred head of cattle in Western Kansas. It
matters little in what country he comes in contact with the
the cattle trade, so thorough is his practical knowledge of the
business, and so unerring his judgment, that he seldom fails
to meet with success in all his live stock operations.

Austin, the capital city of Texas, is the home of Major
Seth Mabry, a popular drover, whose cheerful presence in
any company or place is always welcome — one of the most
appreciative, affable drovers ; among the most chivalric, court¬
eous cattle men the Lone Star State sends to the North an¬
nually with his thousands of beeves. Everybody in anywise
connected with the live stock trade, knows the Major, and
feels the right to call him their friend ; for he knows every
one, and has a pleasant word for each ; is ever ready to do
some one a favor or perform a kind office ; is well read, and

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

has traveled extensively; is a close observer of human tea
and conduct; is very fond of social companions and quite
conversational; always entertaining ; loves a good story, an
has an inexhaustible fund thereof, from wh.ch i one j£
the occasion is always ready at h.s tongue s end, to be told in
his own inimitable manner. This extensive drover went with
his father from Tennessee to Texas in 1837, and under th
paternal tuition learned practically the business of ranching,

MAJOR SETH MABRY. ,

was in fact brought up on a stock ranch, and thorough y dri led

in all the mysteries of successful stock growing. Very wise y
did he decide when he determined to be a ranchm
own account. When he had arrived at the the ageofman^
hood and started in the business world for himse ,
years he studiously, and we need not add success u y,
ed his early and well chosen occupation. Fully twenty thou
sand cattle^bore his brand, and annually hom three to fi^e
thousand calves felt his hot branding iron, cauterizing their

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

tender hides, and stamping indellibly the badge of ownership
to be seen and read by all men.

In 1867 and 1868 the Major tried the rocks of the New
Orleans market, but upon the following year he put in his
first appearance in Western Kansas with large herds, and an¬
nually has he made his pilgrimage to Western Kansas with
about five thousand head of cattle. The Major would always
rather sell than buy, but would rather buy than do nothing ;
would rather sell on the prairie, but does not hesitate to ship
East or drive to some more northerly territory ; or go to the
frigid upper Missouri country, and furnish the Government
contractor with a few thousand bovines to nourish the inner
man of poor “ Lo” and family.

In 1872 the Major became tired of furnishing the Indians
of Western Texas with cow ponies without pay, and there¬
fore sold out his ranch in Llano county, Texas; but about the
same time he and his business associate established a perma¬
nent cattle ranch in Idaho, upon which they placed four thous¬
and cattle, mostly cows and heifers, and the year following
branded about two thousand calves. But this enterprise re¬
ceived but a small part of their attention, so little of it that
in 1873 they found time to drive from Texas about fifteen
thousand head of cattle, and were fortunate enough to get
the supplying of the Indian contractors to the extent of their
herds. The Major has been at least moderately successful
in all his business undertakings, and ranks with the more
influential class of Texan stock men.

CHAPTER VII.

ADVERTISING ABILENE — INDIAN SCARE — HUNTING A LANDLORD •
MRS. LOU. GORE - STRAIGHTENING THE CATTLE TRAIL - CON¬

TENDING FOR THE TRADE — W. W. SUGG — OPENING OF CAT¬
TLE TRADE IN SPRING OF 1 868 - W. F. TOMKINS - E. H.

GAYLORD - J. M. DAY.

Notwithstanding the disastrous experiences oi the fall
of 1867, and the maudlin gibberings of many who took such
a deep (?) interest in the result of the first experiments in
creating a cattle market at Abilene, the founders of that en¬
terprise determined to make a systematic effort to secure a
large drive of cattle from Texas in 1868. To this end a
systematic scheme of advertising in Texas was prosecuted
with energy and without regard to expense. To every Texas
man whose address had been obtained previous and to all
whose address was subsequently obtained by reference to
commercial agencies, directories of cities and county officials,
including every newspaper in the State, to all these were ad¬
dressed a circular setting forth the contemplated purpose of
the Abilene enterprise and inviting the drovers and stock-
men of Texas to bring their herds of marketable cattle to
that point. Assuring all who would do so, of a cordial re¬
ception, fair dealing, protection from mob violence, perfect
equality upon the market and in the use of shipping facilities ;
a concerted joint effort to get buyers for their stock ; in short
to give to the stockman of Texas what he did not before have,
to-wit : A market in which he could sell any and all the live
stock which he might bring thereto, and if failing to find a
purchaser on the prairie for his stock, he could ship them un¬
molested to any point or market he might choose. The pa-

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

”5

pers throughout the state of Texas copied into their columns
the circular letter, and many of them gave the subject favora¬
ble editorial notices.

Every office, business house and hamlet in the State was
the recipient of one or more of the letters. So all Texas was
reading and talking of the new star of hope that had arisen in
the north to light and buoy up the hitherto dark and despond¬
ing heart of the ranch man. In addition to the circular let¬
ters above mentioned, two gentlemen of tact and address were
sent into and traversed the State for no other purpose than
to inform, so far as possible by word of mouth, the Texan
drovers, of Abilene, and the inducements there held out to
stock-men. Inasmuch as a drover or seller of stock is only
one of the parties necessary to make a complete cattle mar¬
ket, the buyer being just as indispensable a personage as the
seller, therefore it was necessary to do an equal amount of
advertising throughout the Northern States and Territories,
proclaiming to the Northern cattle world the expected con¬
centration of Texas cattle at Abilene. In order to accom¬
plish this result access was had to the advertising columns of
every newspaper widely read by Northern cattle men. Fully
five thousand dollars were expended in this advertising scheme
during the winter of 1867 and 1868. In the communications
sent into Texas definite advisory instructions were urged
upon the Texan drover to bring only good, choice, select cat¬
tle. But the habit of taking everything that was gathered
by the ranchman was generally persisted in and the instruc¬
tions to bring select cattle only, were disregarded by all dro¬
vers, save a few who heeded the advice given, and such re¬
ceived a satisfactory reward for the pains taken in getting up
their herd, in the ready sale and fine prices obtained soon
after their arrival at Abilene.

Thirty days before the cattle began to arrive at Abilene, in
the spring of 1868, quite a delegation of buyers were at the
Drovers’ Cottage, a hotel erected for the special accommoda¬
tion of cattle men, awaiting the advent of the cattle, when

1 16

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

trade would open. To while away the tedious hours till the
cattle came, resort was had to divers expedients, such as read¬
ing newspapers, talking over business projects and prospects,
telling stories, perpetrating jokes, etc.

During the spring of 1868 the Indians made a hostile raid
upon the frontier settlers of Northwestern Kansas. It was a
determined effort on their part to prevent the settlement of
the Solomon and Salina river country, their favorite hunting
ground. They made a sudden descent upon the sparce set¬
tlements, and such whites as did not make a hasty retreat from
the country, were brutally massacred and their women taken
captive. The redskins extended their raid within fifty or six¬
ty miles of Abilene. Of course there was considerable ex¬
citement and all sorts of rumors afloat among the sparce set¬
tlements near and west of Abilene. The Indians and their
barberous atrocities, and the probable point east to which they
were likely to extend their raid, were the absorbing topics of
the day, *and pallid cheeks and nervous twitchings were ob¬
servable on every hand among the timid, such as had no par¬
ticular anxiety to form the acquaintance of Mr. “Lo” and his
coadjutors, especially whilst their appetites for scalps seemed
so insatiable. Several Eastern live stock men, who had come
to Abilene to purchase cattle, were among the guests of the
Cottage, and it was among that class that the greatest un¬
easiness was manifested. Especially was this the case with
a certain young man from Green or Jersey county, Illinois,
who had, against the advice of his young and newly married
wife, come out to invest his first venture in Texan cattle. It
was soon observed by the old, experienced frontiersmen and
drovers present, that this young man “had the Injun scare
bad.” Whenever a story was told about Indian fighting,
scalping and massacreing, this young cattle man’s cheek
would blanch, his frame tremble, and groaning sighs escaped
his lips. The boys thought him a fit subject to perpetrate a
joke upon. So they posted the landlord of the Cottage, also
the telegraph operator, of the respective parts they were de-

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST. I I 7

sired to play. Just before the appointed hour the guests
gathered in a cluster and began telling the most horrible In¬
dian stories they ever heard or could imagine, always winding
up with the confident prediction that the Indians, then so near,
would never stop short of cleaning out every white man in
that portion of Kansas, and that a bloody encounter was to
be expected soon. All unanimously agreed that it was every
man’s duty to burnish and load up every weapon that could
be found. Expectations of the Indians that afternoon or

INDIAN SCARE.

night, were expressed on all sides. This was all told and
acted in the most serious manner, and had the effect of almost
overwhelming the young cattle dealer with fear. Then the
telegraph operator came rushing from the office toward the
landlord, and in an agitated manner handed him a (bogus) dis¬
patch. The landlord glanced at it, then made one of those
excited exclamations, expressive of sudden alarm, and jump¬
ing upon a chair, proceeded to read a general warning to the

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

citizens of Abilene and vicinity, of the near approach of the
Indians in great numbers, with bloody war clubs and gory
scalping knives ; also bidding the citizens to arm for their
own defense, and to prepare for “ war to the knife, the knife
to the hilt.” Of course the excitement arose to fever heat
during the reading of the message, which purported to be
dated at a station forty miles west of Abilene. The young
drover was horror personified, transfixed with fear, “ each par¬
ticular hair” standing erect, knees knocked together in true
Belchazzar style, his hand yielded its grip upon his hat, the
tears trickled down his pallid cheeks, his bosom heaved with
convulsive emotion, and his scarcely articulate voice groaning
out self-reproaches for not listening to his wife’s faithful ad¬
monitions and advice against going after Texan cattle ; moan¬
ing the determined promise to let Texan cattle go to a hotter
country than Texas, if he was only permitted to get home
alive; and then “ Oh my poor wife!” would break from his
twitching lips. He made a rush for his room, clutched his
satchel and came down stairs with a bound, there meeting the
landlord — who was hallooing orders to arm in a guttral, corn-
mandatory voice, mnch like the sound of a fire marshal’s
bugle — he timidly asked if he must stop to pay his bill. The
landlord profanely upbraided him for proposing to cowardly
leave the house, in which were several ladies, to the mercies
of the fiendish savages, adding that if he had a drop of other
than cowardly blood in him he would stay and fight, if need
be die, to defend the images of his mother and his wife, there
in the house. With a wailing groan and a “ Oh, my dear
wife !” he dropped his valise and wished to be shown where
he could be of service, adding that a place in which he would
stand the best chance to get away in case of attack would
suit him best. It was immediately decided to send out a
couple of skirmishers as spies, to ride to the brow of the hills
iust west of town and watch for the first appearance of the
redskins. The young cattle dealer was selected to accom¬
pany another man, both on horseback. So mounting the

THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

young cattle man, bare-backed, upon a venerable j ?
twenty summers and somewhere near fiftv T T S'
traveled, while his companion was I*

young charger they both started toward the wesf Afte

a i Vs

' steed to follow at a distance R T ’ Tf the °'d h0"*

ed by hB verdant, scared comrade, to whom he yelled to flv
of bo°„en-T ma" Came in Si^ht’ belaboring his old rack

s Zrztzzz T7;h^ a0,d tr r ~

pared with the cattle dealer's face *But h b ackness com‘
1^“ joke had gone faren°^'

i&”=StStfi£SS

nishedto^lonsfir5’^6"33 C°mP,eted and fur-
hotel until the following snrhi^ „T “ ^ °P™d “ a

found or wanted until that time.

rril\a^

landlord to take chf^Tf ' «°°d “P"—d

and the^subjMtof'the^rip^made^nown toTim^Th^result

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

of which was a call at the St. Nicholas Hotel in St. Louis.
Entering the reception room and quietly taking a seat, a ser¬
vant was sent into the dining room to request an interview
with the steward, who was reported to be anxious to take

MRS. LOU. GORE.

charge of a hotel upon his own account. In a few minutes
the steward, his wife and the rough-clad Illinoisan were chat¬
ting earnestly upon the proposed business transaction, which
conversation resulted in tho steward and his wife going to
Abilene to be the first landlord and landlady, afterwards pro¬
prietors, of the Drovers’ Cottage — a name still perpetuated
on more than one hotel in the West. In less than one hund¬
red hours from the time the start was made the hotel domi¬
ciled its future proprietor — Mrs. Lou. Gore.

In a brief time it was apparent that in the person ot the
new landlady of the cottage the drovers had a true sympa¬
thizing friend, and in their sickness a true guardian and nurse,

OF THE WEST AND

SOUTHWEST.

S“Prh;^r r r ready - «■»*• *

sick, it maLte/not; Se was **• thi«‘y

relieve them. From her earliest m N'£htlngale to

jn a hotel, her father being to this Xthe" h°me haS be?n
large one at Niagara Falls at which d Y ^ ProPrietor of a

York or Boston, going ! theptl ,77 to New

a sick and wearied drfver has she n 17 S'°P' M »y
for until health was restored • or in the ^ and.t!"derly cared
their dying moments with all’the kind SOOthed

only so well understands how

drovers, rough, uncouth men such T Ma”y WCStern
frontier produces, will ever hear the na Ureivy?nd the wild
mentioned only with emotions of kinde^resn 7' ^ G°re
est memory, and feelings near akin to th kT ^ tender~
binds earth to Heaven , th h° y Passion that

The cattle trail broken and driven over in tQ* r
crossing of the Arkansas river w u 867 from the

the Little Arkansas river and on th^ ^ m°Uth of

Of Wichita, ,0 Abilene w“ „ot Irrr' °f the
order to straighten un thic r m , GCt but clrcuitous. In
Abilene, ^ “* ^ »

exertions of western would h* ’ to counteract the

foade, an engine!"! f*"* forthe catde
Civil Engineer T. FhI" u* the «■*«« of
heart was always found in the rfoht°!’ *'"? man’ whose
blood for his friends, an early settler of 7 ^ ^ °f Warm

at whose cabin Bayard Taylor ?ot "h- 1 e extreme frontier,

^ went out on h4mou:tSd ^ r' " “

spades a„d shoXor 2r, "d ^ of '“borers with

rente located -rkthe

south from Abilene until the ' afted out and run almost due

•as reached, finding Arkansas river

suitable camping points the entire dUntX^atte

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

Arkansas river the first drove of cattle of the season, the
party returned piloting the herd over the new trail, and thus
by use opening it to the many thousand herds of cattle that
followed in months and years afterward.

Notwithstanding the jeers of rival towns both east and
west of Abilene at her, to them, ridiculous presumption in
assuming to be a cattle market, seeing the immense commerce
that was about centering at Abilene, when they heard the
news of the many herds that were on the trail bound north¬
ward, became greatly exercised upon the subject, and deter¬
mined to erect shipping yards at one town east and at three
towns west of Abilene. In order to make amend for their
failure to systematically advertise their respective point during
the past winter, as had been done for Abilene, each town sent
to the crossing of the Arkansas river from two to ten drum¬
mers, or runners, for their respective points, to induce the
drovers to turn to the right or left and go to other towns in¬
stead of Abilene. To counteract this choir of solicitors Abi¬
lene sent one young man to represent and to protect her in¬
terests, not to say rights, for by her enterprise in working
and advertising she did have a semblance at least of right to
claim the cattle trade as hers. But the young man sent out
by Abilene was the same one who was sent alone in July ’67,
to proclaim the good tidings of Abilene to the wandering and
mob-fearing drovers. A man upon whose countenance truth
and honesty sat enthroned supreme, which could be readily
discerned by the most casual observer, and readily detected
by the close scrutinizing drover.

He deserves more than a passing mention. Few young
men connected with the Western cattle trade is wider and
better known than W. W. Sugg, and none will out rank him
in quiet, persistent, unvarying friendship to the Southern cat¬
tle trade. He is an Illinoisan by birth and education ; but
early in life was thrown upon his own resources and upon the
frontier, to seek the glittering wealth every adventurer be¬
lieves dame fortune has in store for him. Although but a

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

££ tt^r:“LTeHs; thaving rldiered du™g

moni^ thHe SCare’ ""*■ ^-dety “u

laid on hickory wyths in the hands of Southern mobs. After
herd fr T ^ he fina"y ^reeded getting his

ba Jer in “outh^r' °f ^ ^ ‘he “^mountable

Darner in Southwestern Missouri and Southeastern Kansas

was attentively listened to by the Illinoisan, bufa few week '
before he sought out and undertook the development of AM-
lenes famous enterprise. We need scarcely add that Mh
Sugg and the Illinoisan became fast and true fr' ,ds, and that
in him the Illinoisan found a genuine, unflinching, warm friend
as i^theT U"WaverinS in the hour of adversity and need
and bh f S,°f ProsPerityi one whose heart was as true
and whose friendship as sincere— where every other one had
passed but a cold recognition, if not words full of bitter cal
umny for the Illinoisan as is the heart of him who cares for

of tterrb 'ndered f°rSake “S- Such is the reaI character
of this humble, unpretentious man. Every western drover

neaTt^Lad fieVeSinuhim’ “d name »ould be put
nearthe heacl if not at the very head of the list of those

Whom they believe in Western parlance “it will do to tie to "

o,„Vr d W° ' 3 Si"gle sentence fr°m hi» in his own
quiet, modest way, was sufficient to outweigh in the mind of

he drover, all the multiplicity of words and loud declarations

«emotedC:re °L ^ wh° 0PP^d him and at!

froTh obtain trade for their respective towns. Aside
from his manner the magic, winning words that caught the
istenmg ear of the drover, was, " that at Abilene buyers for
their cattle are awaiting their arrival." Now. by the by a

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

— *“ ^ * therai,r°ad

tOWTe “hint"' which wil! unlock the pandont
box of success, to every town that is desirous of making it-
self a successful cattle market. tti

and soon the attempt to divert the trade m that d.reCon was
Xmdoned. The western competing points were even more
unsuccessful and soon withdrew their unavailing solicitors.

As has been stated, the Cottage at Abilene was full 01
cattle-buyers awaiting the arrival of the cattle from Texas
long before the first herd had passed the southern line ol
Kansas No sooner did the cattle begin to arrive than trade
opened lively and at good prices. Many thousand were
taken by Illinois grazers and Indian contractors, a so ranc
men from Colorado, Montana, Utah and other Northern ter¬
ritories Speculators from Nebraska, Iowa, and other north¬
ern States, all put in an appearance on the Abilene market

and I^esP^!jene as a cattle market was at last established
beyond cavil or doubt. The demand for cars for easte
shipment reached over one thousand during the month o
June, and the hitherto incredulous Kansas Pacific Railroad
Co. was taxed to its utmost capacity to furnish needed cars
It was compelled to transform many of its flatcars into cattle
cars, by putting a frame work on them. The bridge oyer
the Missouri river was not completed at that time and e
chance to hire foreign cars was very limited.

Every effort was made in good faith to so arrange and

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST. I 2 C

Z5Z&T.ZZ In Zo upon the

where h(» hnrl u S° many frigid Wisconsin winters
mg a retrieved fortune. This old gentleman had"

SSB5BSfin£sSiSS*

shipment of the first trainofetoeln “sfit °“aS‘°nofthe

XXXtXnewhim^

tom fel" S; mOUnd —'“king the scene Ic his to

-.he to cl: ofir,:?„:Xrt“rs,ute of;espect

one who deserved better fortune than was give/hta ~

that matter eXXXar ^ ^ dro^ “d for

its palmy days will reme h V1Sltec^ Abilene during

reJlto toTtCX; "be;’andLwi" '“£h while they
all the talk,_to tr« toK, °nS' gestures and *<>ove
words that was always heard when^^T^6 avaIanche 01
Barn - flowing from thefioXh the'm™™ “Twin

the natural bom liveryman p0! ,mpreSS‘bh Ed- Ward ;
opening of each catttoeason would (“^“7 °f years' the

lXsmbferraTtaIfdotZernd“C‘a firS' man’s

^.-orth^see^Z^SX^

126

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

with about one ten-dollar note borrowed of some confiding
friend, was all the capital and stock he required to begin busi¬
ness with. It would be but a few short weeks after the open¬
ing of the cattle trade before every stall — fully one hundred
or more — would be full of cow ponies. Some he had traded
for, others boarding only. It was a rare instance that an
applicant for livery accommodation was turned away unac¬
commodated ; no matter what he thought he wanted, Gaylard
always could give him just what he called for, or convince
him that some other available outfit was what the customer
really ought to want.

GAYLARD’S AFFECTIONATE PONY.

Should the applicant happen to be an over fastidious,
or a “fine-haired” specimen of the genus homo , Gaylard
would certainly manage to get him upon some inveterate,
desperate Spanish pony, whose first and last impulse would
be to “buck” as long as it had strength. Of course Gay¬
lard would, at first, extol the pony to the skies as the best of
saddle ponies; gentle, kind, amiable, affectionate, and in
every way delightful to ride. Of course, as soon as the man
was mounted, the vicious brute would set off “bucking” ftt
a furious rate — as nearly all western ponies do when first

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

127

mounted — and never let up until the ameteur horseman was
sent sprawling through the air, only to land roughly on the
ground in an utterly demoralized condition. Then Gaylard
would swear that he bought the pony of a Preacher who
recommended the animal as being a lady’s horse, and declare
he believed the pony perfectly gentle, and that its conduct
was only play and nothing vicious intended. But all this was
poor comfort to the dirt-begrimmed customer, who invariably
concluded to wait for an opportunity to walk, or decide he
did not really care to go out into the country at all.

E. n. GAYLARD.

In a few weeks the incurred bills on the boarding ponies
would be sufficient to buy every pony in the barn, aside from
the odd, nice cash sums, that the enterprising livery man had
accumnlated by letting his boarding ponies. And such bills
as he could manage to make out and present with the sang
froid of a pettifogger, was astonishing to his patrons. It
was no use to complain or dispute his bills, or grumble, or

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

swear at what you might call extortion, or declare you would
not pay it. The instant a murmuring breath would escape
your lips, he would open such a battery of slang and abuse,
highly seasoned with impious expressions, to which would be
added all sorts of hints about the penurious man who did not
want to pay for first class accommodations, that you would
gladly pay your bill and run. It was idle to attempt a stay
of his speech or answer his torrent of good natured abuse.
You could not think, much less speak one half so fast as the
livery man could talk ; and such expressions, such tongue
lashings as a complaining patron would receive, would induce
him to pay his bill, no matter how exhorbitant, and rush away,
glad to escape. Often a patron would be indignant and want
to fight, but Gaylard never got mad, but talked so incessantly
that anger could neither do or say anything but submit and
retreat. Nevertheless, Gaylard had innumerable friends, in
fact no one was his enemy. He was a shrewd horse trader,
a very jockey by nature, and loved a horse better than all
other things combined. Each cattle season he would acquire
from four to five thousand dollars worth of ponies, buggies,
and other accouterments; but during the winter, when but
little business was doing, he would become reckless, and by
the opening of spring would have recklessly spent his previ¬
ous summer’s profits and be ready to take his place and make
another raise off of the cattle trade. He was a man of good
impulses, undaunted energy, of excellent judgment on all
matters pertaining to a horse, and had a big, true heart full
of sympathy for the unfortunate.

J. M. Day, of Austin, Texas, is a Missourian by birth,
but at the early age of ten years emigrated to Texas with his
father, who went at once into stock ranching, and adhered
closely thereto during the remainder of his life ; thus thor¬
oughly and practically educating his son in the business of
live stock raising. As soon as Mr. Day had attained the
years of manhood he engaged in live stock driving on his
own account, having a few years previously went as assistant

or THE WEST

AND SOUTHWEST. I 29

driver with a herd to Kansas City, also one or more trips to
T.pton, Missouri, where the herds were shipped to St. Louis
to he's? arm°"g 6, firSt shiPments of Texan cattle brought

forflSr' LrS ”arket' a"d Was as early as i857- But be¬
fore the trade was fairly opened the civil war begin, and fur¬

ther efforts to drive northward was abandoned At the 1

of the war Mr. Day turned his attention to his old t “

and was a drover of 1866, but one of the fori- apatl°n’

had sagacity sufficient to enable them to see that Wh°

of all settlement in Western Kans” was ^ LlbTe" a„r'
it proved in his case. In Iowa he found f * lcabJe’ and 50
his cattle, at figures that afforded a fine profit P ^ f°r
the opening of a cattle market at Abilene ind a u-
to put several herds upon the trail for Western K h‘m

From the year 1868 to 187,, inclusive Mr D* T

dtove from three to seven thousand head of' ^

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

herds were generally of good quality, well selected beeves.
He was recognized as one of the most substantial, straight¬
forward, honorable drovers that engaged in the Western cattle
trade. Seeing so many engaged in driving, Mr. Day decided
to abandon it, and devote his time and capital to buying and
selling in Kansas — a kind of local trader or speculator, — and
for two years has handled fully ten thousand head each year,
never failing to make a reasonable profit on each transaction.
Whilst he has been looking after the cattle in Western Kan¬
sas for a few months annually, he has devoted the balance of
his time in establishing and opening up a large wheat farm
and a thoroughbred stock ranch in Denton county, Northern
Texas, which enterprise he expects to make his permanent
business, and there expects to make his home.

Mr. Day is one of those quiet, affable gentlemen, that
makes good impressions and warm friends wherever he goes.
Texas has few better, truer men than he ; kind hearted and
honorable, straightforward in all his business transactions, he
has much good will and hearty cheer for every one.

CHAPTER VIII.

LOCATING A HERD AND ESTABLISHING CAMP - HERDING BY DAY

AND GUARDING BY NIGHT - SELLING ON THE PRAIRIE -

COUNTING ON THE RANGE - COW-BOY ON THE WAR PATH -

LIFE AND LABORS OF THE COW-BOY - THE BAD CHARACTERS

THAT GATHER AT CATTLE TOWNS - THE DANCE HOUSE -

“SHANGHAI PIERCE” - GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF TEXAN

DROVERS.

No sooner had it become a conceded fact that Abilene,
as a cattle depot, was a success, than trades’ people from all
points came to the village and, after putting up temporary
houses, went into business. Of course the saloon, the bil¬
liard table, the ten-pin alley, the gambling table — in short,
every possible device for obtaining money in both an honest
and dishonest manner, were abundant.

Fully seventy-five thousand cattle arrived at Abilene
during the summer of 1868, and at the opening of the market
in the spring fine prices were realized and snug fortunes were
made by such drovers as were able to effect a sale of their
herds. It was the custom to locate herds as near the village
as good water and plenty of grass could be found. As soon
as the herd is located upon its summer grounds a part of
the help is discharged, as it requires less labor to hold than
to travel. The camp was usually located near some living
water or spring where sufficient wood for camp purposes
Could be easily obtained. After selecting the spot for the
camp, the wagon would be drawn up. Then a hole dug in
the ground in which to build a fire of limbs of trees or drift
wood gathered to the spot, and a permanent camp instituted

132

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

by unloading the contents of the wagon upon the ground.
And such a motley lot of assets as come out of one of those
camp carts would astonish one, and beggar minute descrip¬
tion : a lot of saddles and horse-blankets, a camp-kettle,
coffee-pot, bread pan, battered tin cups, a greasy mess chest,
dirty soiled blankets, an ox yoke, a log chain, spurs and quirts,
a coffee-mill, a broken-helved ax, bridles, picket-ropes, and
last, but not least, a side or two of fat mast-fed bacon ; to
which add divers pieces of raw hide in various stages of dry¬
ness. A score of other articles not to be thought of will come
out of that exhaustless camp cart. But one naturally inquires
what use would a drover have for a raw-hide, dry or fresh ?
Uses infinite; nothing breaks about a drover’s outfit that he
cannot mend with strips or thongs of raw-hide. He mends
his bridle or saddle or picket-rope, or sews his ripping pants
or shirt, or lashes a broken wagon tongue, or binds on a
loose tire, with raw-hide. In short, a raw-hide is a concen¬
trated and combined carpenter and blacksmith shop, not to
say saddler’s and tailor’s shop, to the drover. Indeed, it is
said that what a Texan cannot make or mend with a raw-
hide is not worth having, or is irretrievably broken into un-
distinguishable fragments. It is asserted that the agricultu¬
ral classes of that State fasten their plow points on with raw-
hide, but we do not claim to be authority on Texan agricul¬
ture, therefore cannot vouch for this statement.

The herd is brought upon its herd ground and carefully
watched during the day, but allowed to scatter out over suffi¬
cient territory to feed. At nightfall it is gathered to a spot
selected near the tent, and there rounded up and held during
the night. One or more cow-boys are on duty all the while,
being relieved at regular hours by relays fresh aroused from
slumber, and mounted on rested ponies, and for a given num¬
ber of hours they ride slowly and quietly around the herd,
which, soon as it is dusk, lies down to rest and ruminate.
About midnight every animal will arise, turn about for a few
moments, and then lie down again near where it arose, only

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

*33

changing sides so as to rest. But if no one should be watch¬
ing to prevent straggling, it would be but a short time before
the entire herd would be up and following off the leader, or
some uneasy one that would rather travel than sleep or rest.
All this is easily checked by the cow-boy on duty. But when
storm is imminent, every man is required to have his horse
saddled ready for an emergency. The ponies desired for use
are picketed out, which is done by tying one end of a half
inch rope, sixty or seventy feet long, around the neck of the
pony and fastening the other end to a pointed iron or wooden
stake, twelve or more inches long, which is driven in the firm
ground. As all the strain is laterally and none upward, the
picket pin will hold the strongest horse. The length of the
rope is such as to permit the animal to graze over consider¬
able space, and when he has all the grass eat off within his
reach, it is only necessary to move the picket pin to give him
fresh and abundant pasture. Such surplus ponies as are not
in immediate use, are permitted to run with the cattle or herd¬
ed to themselves, and when one becomes jaded by hard usage,
he is turned loose and a rested one caught with the lasso and
put to service. Nearly all cow-boys can throw the lasso well
enough to capture a pony or a beef when they desire so to do.
Day after day the cattle are held under herd and cared for by
the cow-boys, whilst the drover is looking out for a purchaser
for his herd, or a part thereof, especially if it be a mixed herd
— which is a drove composed of beeves, three, two and one
year old steers, heifers and cows. To those desiring any one
or more classes of such stock as he ' may have, the drover
seeks to sell, and if successful, has the herd rounded up and
cuts out the class sold ; and after counting carefully until all
parties are satisfied, straightway delivers them to the pur¬
chaser. The counting of the cattle, like the separating or
cutting out, is invariably done on horseback. Those who do
the counting, take positions a score of paces apart, whilst the
cow-boys cut off small detachments of cattle and force them
between those counting, and when the bunch or cut is count-

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

134

ed satisfactorily, the operation is repeated until all are counted.
Another method is to start the herd off, and when it is well
drawn out, to begin at the head and count back until the last
are numbered. As a rule, stock cattle are sold by the herdf
and often beeves are sold in the same manner, but in many
instances sale is made by the pound, gross weight. The
latter manner is much the safest for the inexperienced, for he
then pays only for what he gets ; but the Texan prefers to
sell just as he buys at home, always by the head. However,
in late years, it is becoming nearly the universal custom to
weigh all beeves sold in Northern markets.

Whilst the herd is being held upon the same grazing
grounds, often one or more of the cow-boys, not on duty,
will mount their ponies and go to the village nearest camp and
spend a few hours ; learn all the items of news or gossip con¬
cerning other herds and the cow-boys belonging thereto.
Besides seeing the sights, he gets such little articles as may
be wanted by himself and comrades at camp ; of these a sup¬
ply of tobacco, both chewing and smoking forms one of the
principle, and often recurring wants. The cow-boy almost
invariably smokes or chews tobacco — generally both ; for the
time drags dull at camp or herd ground. Their is nothing
new or exciting occurring to break the monotony of daily
routine events. Sometimes the cow-boys off duty will go to
town late in the evening and there join with some party of
cow-boys — whose herd is sold and they preparing to start
home — in having a jolly time. Often one or more of them
will imbibe too much poison whisky and straightway go on
the “warpath.” Then mounting his pony he is ready to
shoot anybody or anything ; or rather than not shoot at all,
would fire up into the air, all the while yelling as only a semi-
civilized being can. At such times it is not safe to be on the
streets, or for that matter within a house, for the drunk cow¬
boy would as soon shoot into a house as at anything else.
Many incidents could be told of their crazy freaks ; and freaks
more villainous than crazy, but space forbids, save one only.

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

135

In 1868 a party of young men mostly residents of Abilene,
numbering six or seven, were returning from a walk, at a late
hour, when all of a sudden they heard the footsteps of a run¬
ning pony, each moment coming nearer. Before they could
scarce divine the meaning thereof, a mounted, crazy, drunk
cow-boy was upon them. Yelling in demoniacal voice to
halt ; adding horrible oaths, abuse and insult. Before the
young men fully comprehended the situation, the cow-boy
was rushing around them at a furious rate of speed, firing
both his revolvers over their heads in the darkness, demand- j
ing an immediate contribution from each one of a ten dollar
note, swearing instant death to every one who refused to
comply at once with his request.

The party of young men were entirely unarmed, and in
imminent danger of being shot. But no time was to be lost.

As a subterfuge, one of the young men, a drover, began talk¬
ing in the kindest tone of voice, saying to the cow-boy : “Now
hold on ; we are all cow-boys just off of trail, and have been
out to see a little fun. We have no money with us, but if
you will just go with me to the Cottage, you shall have all the
ten dollar notes you want. Certainly, certainly, sir ! anything
you want you can have, if you will only go with me to the
hotel. Certainly, certainly, sir!”

Whilst this was being played, each of the other boys be¬
took himself to his hands and knees and crawled away in the
darkness until a few paces were gained, then tried his utmost
capacity in running to a place of safety. In the meantime
the cow-boy followed the spokesman, swearing instant death
to every one if the money was not forthcoming. No sooner
did they reach the Cottage than the young drover, after re¬
assuring the cow-boy of his intention to get him the money,
passed inside the hotel, and at once rushed for his pistols.

But friends, who comprehended his intent and seeing “ shoot
in his eye,” prevented him from going outside again. The
cow-boy having his suspicions aroused by the delay, whirled
his pony and dashed off for the village, screeching and yell-

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

137

ing in genuine Indian style as he went. Coming to a large,
Open fronted tent, he dashed toward it, emptying the last
loaded chamber of his revolver into it ; then drawing his huge
knife, cut the tent from end to end, and when it had fallen to
the ground at his feet, rushed his pony over it, and was off
for a bagnio, where he robbed every inmate of their money,
jewelry and other valuables ; then turned his pony’s head to¬
ward the cattle trail and was off for Texas.

Such hard cases made it necessary to institute corporate
government in the village. It was a hard struggle before law
and order was established, and to maintain it cost the utmost
firmness and perpetual vigilance. It was often necessary to
disarm drunken cow-boys and such roughs as inevitably con¬
gregate at frontier commercial centers, which could be done
only by force and terror. No quiet turned man could or
would care to take the ofifiee of marshal, which jeopardized his
life ; hence the necessity of employing a desperado, one who
feared nothing, and would as soon shoot an offending subject
as to look at him.

The life of the cow-boy in camp is routine and dull. His
food is largely of the “ regulation ” order, but a feast of veg¬
etables he wants and must have, or scurvy would ensue.
Onions and potatoes are his favorites, but any kind of vege¬
tables will disappear in haste when put within his reach. In
camp, on the trail, on the ranch in Texas, with their countless
thousands of cattle, milk and butter are almost unknown, not
even milk or cream for the coffee is had. Pure shiftlessness
and the lack of energy are the only reasons for this privation,
and to the same reasons can be assigned much of the priva¬
tions and hardships incident to ranching.

It would cost but little effort or expense to add a hundred
comforts, not to say luxuries, to the life of a drover and his
cow-boys. They sleep on the ground, with a pair of blankets
for bed and cover. No tent is used, scarcely any cooking
utensils, and such a thing as a camp cook-stove is unknown.
The warm water of the branch or the standing pool is drank ;

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

138

often it is yellow with alkali and other poisons. No wonder
the cow-boy gets sallow and unhealthy, and deteriorates in
manhood until often he becomes capable of any contemptible
thing ; no wonder he should become half-civilized only, and
take to whisky with a love excelled scarcely by the barbarous
Indian.

When the herd is sold and delivered to the purchaser, a
day of rejoicing to the cow-boy has come, for then he can go
free and have a jolly time ; and it is a jolly time they have.
Straightway after settling with their employers the barber
shop is visited, and three to six months’ growth of hair is
shorn off, their long-grown, sunburnt beard “ set ” in due
shape, and properly blacked ; next a clothing store of the
Israelitish style is “gone through,” and the cow-boy emerges
a new man, in outward appearance, everything being new,
not excepting the hat and boots, with star decorations about

the tops, also a new - , well in short everything new.

Then for fun and frolic. The bar-room, the theatre, the
gambling-room, the bawdy house, the dance house, each and
all come in for their full share of attention. In any of these
places an affront, or a slight, real or imaginary, is cause suffi¬
cient for him to unlimber one or more “mountain howitzers,”
invariably found strapped to his person, and proceed to deal
out death in unbroken doses to such as may be in range of
his pistols, whether real friends or enemies, no matter, his
anger and bad whisky urge him on to deeds of blood and death.

At frontier towns where are centered many cattle and,
as a natural result, considerable business is transacted, and
many strangers congregate, there are always to be found a
number of bad characters, both male and female ; of the very
worst class in the universe, such as have fallen below the level
of the lowest type of the brute creation. Men who live a
soulless, aimless life, dependent upon the turn of a card for
the means of living. They wear out a purposeless life, ever
looking blear-eyed and dissipated ; to whom life, from various
causes, has long since become worse than a total blank ; be-

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

139

ings in the form of man whose outward appearance would
betoken gentlemen, but whose heart-strings are but a wisp
of base sounding chords, upon which the touch of the higher
and purer life have long since ceased to be felt. Beings
without whom the world would be better, richer and more de¬
sirable. And with them are always found their counterparts
in the opposite sex ; those *who have fallen low, alas ! how
low ! They, too, are found in the frontier cattle town ; and
that institution known in the west as a dance house, is there
found also. When the darkness of the night is come to
shroud their orgies from public gaze, these miserable beings
gather into the halls of the dance house, and “ trip the fantas¬
tic toe ” to wretched music, ground out of dilapidated instru¬
ments, by beings fully as degraded as the most vile. In this
vortex of dissipation the average cow-boy plunges with great
delight. Few more wild, reckless scenes of abandoned de¬
bauchery can be seen on the civilized earth, than a dance
house in full blast in one of the many frontier towns. To
say they dance wildly or in an abandoned manner is putting
it mild. Their manner of practising the terpsichorean art
would put the French “ Can-Can ” to shame.

The cow-boy enters the dance with a peculiar zest, not
stopping to divest himself of his sombrero, spurs, or pistols,
but just as he dismounts off of his cow-pony, so he goes into
the dance. A more odd, not to say comical sight, is not often
seen than the dancing cow-boy ; with the front of his sombrero
lifted at an angle of fully forty-five degrees ; his huge spurs
jingling at every step or motion ; his revolvers flapping up
and down like a retreating sheep’s tail ; his eyes lit up with
excitement, liquor and lust ; he plunges in and “hoes it down”
at a terrible rate, in the most approved yet awkward country
style ; often swinging “his partner” clear off of the floor for
an entire circle, then “balance all” with an occasional demo¬
niacal yell, near akin to the war whoop of the savage Indian.
All this he does, entirely oblivious to the whole world “and
the balance 01 mankind.” After dancing furiously, the entire

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST. I41

“set” is called to “waltz to the bar,” where the boy is requir¬
ed to treat his partner, and, of course, himself also, which he
does not hesitate to do time and again, although it costs him
fifty cents each time. Yet if it cost ten times that amount
he would not hesitate, but the more he dances and drink, the
less common sense he will have, and the more completely his
animal passions will control him. Such is the manner in which
the cow-boy spends his hard earned dollars. And such is the
entertainment that many young men — from the North and
the South, of superior parentage and youthful advantages in
life — give themselves up to, and often more, their lives are
made to pay the forfeit of their sinful foolishness.

After a few days of frolic and debauchery, the cow-boy
is ready, in company with his comrades, to start back to
Texas, often not having one dollar left of his summer’s wages.
To this rather hard drawn picture of the cow-boy, there are
many creditable exceptions, — young men who respect them¬
selves and save their money, and are worthy young gentle¬
men, — but it is idle to deny the fact that the wild, reckless
conduct of the cow-boys while drunk, in connection with that
of the worthless northern renegades, have brought the per¬
sonnel of the Texan cattle trade into great disrepute, and
filled many graves with victims, bad men and good men, at
Abilene, Newton, Wichita, and Ellsworth. But by far the
larger portion of those killed are of that class that can be
spared without detriment to the good morals and respect¬
ability of humanity.

It often occurs when the cow-boys fail to get up a melee
and kill each other by the half dozen, that the keepers of
those “hell’s half acres” find some pretext arising from “busi¬
ness jealousies” or other causes, to suddenly become bellig¬
erent, and stop not to declare war, but begin hostilities at
once. It is generally effective work they do with their re¬
volvers and shot guns, for they are the most desperate men
on earth. Either some of the principals or their subordinates
are generally “done for” in a thorough manner, or wounded

142

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

so as to be miserable cripples for life. On such occasions
there are few tears shed, or even inquiries made, by the re¬
spectable people, but an expression of sorrow is common that,
active hostilities did not continue until every rough was stone
dead.

We will present in this chapter a sketch of the widely
known A. H. Pierce, familiarly called “ Shanghai Pierce,” a
nickname given him in Texas to distinguish him from one of
lesser stature, and shorter legs, but bearing the same name,
and engaged in the same business. Born in Rhode Island,
Pierce went to the state of Virginia at the early age of thir¬
teen, where he remained for five years and then turned his
wandering steps toward Texas. The lapse of time was brief
after landing in his chosen State, before he took a situation
at fifteen dollars per month with a stock-raiser, aiding him to
establish a new ranch ; mauling rails, breaking oxen, and
bucking ponies, were among the refining services that young
Pierce first engaged in. For eight years he continued on a
salary to serve the same man. The latter part of his term
of service was devoted to driving beeves to New Orleans and
other markets. But when the civil war began he went into
the ranks of the confederate army, and for four years did
duty as a soldier. At the close of the war, *r»d the collapse
of the confederate cause, Pierce returned to his former haunts,
and devoted his energetic attention to stock driving on his
own account to the New Orleans market. It is claimed that
he drove one among the first herds, if not the first herd, that
was taken to New Orleans after the close of the war. Hav¬
ing driven for several years before the war, he was not with¬
out friends and acquaintances in New Orleans. But in a few
years he changed his occupation and in connection with other
parties founded a ranch, now somewhat famous, and named
it “ Rancho Grande where in a few years he so increased
his stock of cattle that in the year 1871 he branded fifteen
thousand eight hundred head of calves and “ mavvericks.”
Indeed it was omniously hinted that Pierce’s New England

or THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST

*43

A. H. PIERCE.

energy was too great for his competitors, and other neigh¬
boring ranchers, and that they became jealous of his success,
and did not stop at calling him names more expressive than
complimentary ; but inaugurated a semi-belligerant state of
affairs, in which both parties took an active part. From time
to time various cow-boys on both sides were missed, but after¬
ward found dead with their boots on. Finally this state ot
affairs began to take the dimensions of a small war ; but upon
one fine morning seven or eight Mexican and other cow-boys
belonging to the ranks of Pierce’s mortal enemies, were seen
hanging to the limbs of a dead tree as human fruit. Pierce
says : “ Had that tree been green and alive, he don’t know
how much larger crop it would have borne.” That vexatious
and ever meddling institution called a grand jury, was more
officious about this and other similar occurrences than was
comfortable or pleasing to Pierce, so he sold out his interest

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TIRADE

144

in the fine large stock he had become part owner of, for a
snug sum of money, and went into Kansas to trade in cattle ;
where he has since occupied his attention and capital in vari¬
ous large transactions in live stock. Of late every one who
visits the western cattle market sees or hears of “.Shanghai
Pierce.” And if they ever get within cannon shot of where
he is, they hear his ear-splitting voice more piercing than a
locomotive whistle— more noisy than a steam calliope. It is
idle to try to dispute or debate with him, for he will overwhelm
you with indescribable noise, however little sense it may con¬
vey. Nevertheless Pierce is an energetic, shrewd trader, a
good and successful business man of great experience — knows
how to make money and full well how to keep it. Is fond of
large operations and is ambitious to be looked up to and
quoted as authority on cattle matters. This perhaps is his
greatest vanity or weakness. He loves a good story and
knows quite well how to tell one. Each year since his arri¬
val in Kansas, he and associates have handled from eight to
ten thousand head of cattle.

During the year 1873 the great financial panic found him
in good shape to join with his friend, J. D. Reed, in buying
at panic prices seven thousand head of cattle, and put them
in winter quarters in Central Kansas. Mr. Pierce is interest¬
ed with his brother in establishing a large ranch in South¬
western Texas, and recognizing the necessity of improving
their stock in blood, they are fencing an immense tract of land
for pastoral purposes, and placing graded bulls with their
herds. He is in the fullest sense a self-made man, which is
not to be construed as relieving his Creator of great respon¬
sibility. There are few cattle dealers better calculated for,
or more determined on, taking care of themselves, than A. H.
Pierce.

In concluding the numerous sketches of Texan ranch¬
men and drovers, we offer a few reflections on the general
character of Southwestern cattle men. In doing so we are
not animated by other motives than a desire to convey a cor-

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

»45

rect impression of that numerous class as a whole ; reflections
and impressions based upon close observation and a varied
experience of seven or eight years spent in business contact
and relation with them.

They are, as a class, not public spirited in matters per¬
taining to the general good, but may justly be called selfish,,
or at least indifferent to the public welfare. They are prod¬
igal to a fault with their money, when opportunity offers to
gratify their appetites or passions, but it is extremely difficult
to induce them to expend even a small sum in forwarding a
project or enterprise that has other than a purely selfish end
in view. In general they entertain strong suspicions of North¬
ern men, dnd do not have the profoundest confiderice in each
other. They are disposed to measure every man’s action and
prompting motives by the rule of selfishness, and they are
slow indeed to believe that other than purely selfish motives
could or ever do prompt a man to do an act or develop an
enterprise. If anything happens a man, especially a North¬
ern man, so that he cannot do or perform all that they expect
or require of him, no explanation or reasons are sufficient to
dispel the deep and instant conviction formed in their breasts,
that he is deliberately trying to swindle them, and they can
suddenly see a thousand evidences of his villainy, in short,
instantly vote such an one a double dyed villain.

Their reputation is wide spread for honorably abiding
their verbal contracts. From the very nature of their busi¬
ness, and the circumstances under which it is conducted, ren¬
ders an honorable course imperative ; and, as a rule, where
agreements or contracts are put into writing, they will stand
to them unflinchingly, no matter how great the sacrifice ; but
when the contract or understanding is verbal only, and not of
the most definite nature, their consciences are full as pliant
as are those of any other section. A promise made as to
some future transaction is kept or broken, as their future in¬
terests may dictate.

Nor are they any more brave, or more fond of facing

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

146

death’s cold pillets on an equal footing with their adversaries,
than are men in general from other sections of the country.
True, their habits of life and the necessities and exposed
nature of their business, renders the daily use and carrying
of firearms imperative ; hence their habitual use of the pistol
renders them fair to good shots. Besides the habit of set¬
tling their disputes, often very trifling, with the revolver —
which with some is considered the first and only legitimate
law, argument or reason — has given to the denizens of the
Lone Star State a name and reputation abroad for universal,
genuine bravery, not warranted by the facts. They are just
as brave, but no more so, than are the men of other sections.

They are almost invariably convivial in habit, preferring
as a rule the strongest liquors, and take them “straight.”
Nevertheless, it is rare indeed that a drover is a confirmed
drunkard or sot.

They think, act, and conduct their business in an inde¬
pendent, self-reliant manner, seldom seeking or following the
advice of others.

Each man seems to feel himself an independent sover¬
eign, and as such capable of conducting his affairs in his own
way, subject to nobody or nothing save the wishes, tastes
and necessities of himself.

They are in common with all stock-men universal lovers
of the ladies, and as a class present a discouraging field for
a Shaker Missionary. Indeed they are specially noteworthy
as being obedient to the first commandment.

Sanguine and speculative in temperament ; impulsively
generous in free sentiment ; warm and cordial in their friend¬
ships ; hot and hasty in anger ; with a strong inate sense of
right and wrong ; with a keen sense for the ridiculous and a
general intention to do that that is right and honorable in
their dealings ; they are, as would naturally be supposed,
when the manner of their life is considered, a hardy, self-reli¬
ant, free and independent class, acknowledging no superior
or master in the wide universe

CHAPTER IX.

SHIPPING EXTRA CHOICE CATTLE - CATTLE DRIVEN TO MOUTH

OF RED RIVER - OUTBREAK OF SPANISH FEVER - CONVENTION

OF EXPERTS - THEORIES OF THE CAUSE OF SPANISH FEVER -

“SPORULE THEORY” - “TICK THEORY” - “SHIP FEVER THE¬
ORY ” - SYMPTOMS OF THE DISEASE - PREVENTIVES - J. T.

ALEXANDER - CORN FEEDING.

Among the many fine herds of cattle that arrived at Abi¬
lene in the spring of 1868, there was one of 800 head, a very
choice selection. Great pains had been taken in the best
cattle regions of Texas in selecting choice fat cattle, and
equally as great caution had been exercised in driving them
to Kansas. After arriving at Abilene they were put on the
best herd grounds in the county, where they added greatly to
their already fine condition. The eye of a certain Illinoisan
had been upon this herd for some time, fully determined when
the opportune day arrived, to retrieve some of his severe
losses sustained the previous year. When the proper time
came he purchased two hundred and twenty-four head, his
choice of the eight hundred head, and after selecting them
carefully, one by one, drove them four miles to the shipping
yards, and after standing them therein for twelve hours
weighed them. They made the remarkable average of twelve
hundred and thirty-eight pounds each, and amounted to seven
thousand four hundred and sixty-eight dollars. They were
placed upon the cars and sent forward to Chicago, thence
forwarded to Buffalo, New York, where they were sold, and
due account of sale made to shipper ; but, alas, the net re¬
turns was only fourteen hundred and sixty-eight dollars, six

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

I48

thousand being lost, and not sin^- found or heard of. The
shipper has come to regard it as a permanent contribution, of
a benevolent nature he hopes, toward feeding the oppressed
laborers of New England’s manufactories. So let it be, but
not any more in the same way.

The charity of that cattle shipper is nearly exhausted,
and bread for himself and family much in the same fix. This
great loss was not because the cattle were not good and fat^
for they were, but arose in part from the prejudice of the
people against Texas cattle, and the farther east the greater
the prejudice, and the less they actually knew about the cat¬
tle. But the main cause of great sacrifice was the outbreak
of the so-called “ Spanish fever,” which caused a tremendous
excitement throughout the North. A disastrous panic oc¬
curred among holders of short-horn cattle, resulting in severe
losses and often ruin to many northern cattle men. But be¬
fore we go further into the discussion of the subject of the
disease, its primal cause, preventives, etc., we will notice
another enterprise that took practical shape in the spring of
1868. A certain firm of cattle-men in Chicago went to Texas
and contracted with certain large cattle drovers to deliver
about forty thousand head of cattle on the Mississippi river
at the mouth of Red river where, upon delivery, the cattle
were crowded in large numbers on the hot unventilated
decks of large steamboats. After six to twelve days of per¬
petual standing upon the hard deck without room to lay
down, or drink, or feed, suffering with heat and overcrowding,
they were landed at Cairo, Illinois, in great poverty of flesh
and famishing with hunger, and so near dead from exhaustion
that in many instances they had to be helped up the levee to
the shipping yards of the I. C. R. R., upon which road they
were shipped to Tolono, Ill., and there unloaded and turned
upon the prairies whereon all the domestic cattle of the county
were grazing. Many of the Texas cattle were sold to feed¬
ers and grazers in that portion of Illinois, and some went into
Indiana and were put in pastures, often mixed with the do-

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

149

mestic cattle, no danger being apprehended. But before
thirty days of hot weather had elapsed the domestic cattle on
the prairies and in the pastures began to sicken and die at a
frightful rate. Many grazers became alarmed and rushed
their cattle off to market, fearing if they kept them that they
would lose the entire herd by the dreaded disease. Several
herds of domestic cattle which had been exposed were shipped
east, and upon the way developed the disease, and speedily
died, causing great losses to their owners and a feeling of
indignant fear and excitement among all Eastern as well as
Western cattle men, resulting, as before stated, in a crash
and panic throughout the entire Northern cattle market,
and a feeling of intense hostility toward southwestern cattle.
Upon the prairie about Tolono, Ill., nearly every cow of do¬
mestic blood died. In one township every milk cow except
one died. This was a great and serious loss to many poor
farmers of that region and they became perfectly enraged at
Texan cattle, and would have mobbed a man unto death who
would have dared to talk in favor of Texan cattle, much less
shipped a car-load of them. The trade via mouth of Red
river was thoroughly broken up, with disaster to those en¬
gaged in it from the North. It was just at the outbreak of
the excitement in the East that shipment of the two hundred
and twenty-four head of fine Texan cattle from Abilene, ar¬
rived at Buffalo. Hence the great loss. About the same
time that the disease appeared near Tolono, it also appeared
in a much less fatal and less malignant form in other portions
of Illinois, among domestic cattle which had been grazed
with Texan cattle that had been introduced via Abilene, Kas.
But it is a fact well authenticated that but few cases of disease
actually occurred after exposure to Texan cattle coming via
Western Kansas, and those that did occur were of a milder
type, and not sufficiently alarming to have created more than
a local excitement, but coupled with the disaster that arose
from the introduction of cattle, via mouth of Red river, it was
sufficient to put an entire stop to the eastern demand, and

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

150

consequent shipment of Texan cattle from all points to the
east or anywhere into the northwest.

At the same time the disease appeared in Illinois, a few
cattle died near Abilene, which were all or nearly all paid for
by voluntary contributions of the cattle drovers and parties
interested at Abilene ; and thus the verbal pledges made to
the farmers more than a year before — at a public meeting
called to effect the dissolution of a hostile organization, the
particulars of which have already been given — were made
good to the letter.

The total loss of domestic cattle in Dickinson county
was about forty-five hundred dollars in value. However, the
prices at which the animals were appraised were often grossly
exhorbitant, and in one or two cases fraudulent claims were
made, a few of which were paid before detection. Of the
fund necessary to liquidate these claims, about twelve hundred
dollars was contributed by the drovers then at Abilene, the
balance was paid by the parties who owned the shipping
yards. The K. P. Railway Company, by its general super¬
intendent, agreed to contribute five hundred dollars, but after
the claims were all settled and the Texan cattle shipped, the
Railway Company repudiated its agreement and refused to
pay anything. Such conduct became quite fashionable with
the K. P. Railway Company in after days, indeed they soon
became notorious for their bad iaith in regard to contracts.
It seemed to be their policy to repudiate every contract made.
But we will speak of this more definitely in its proper place.

Throughout the entire Western states an unprecedented
excitement arose about “ Spanish fever,” a name given by
common consent to the malady or disease disseminated by
Texan cattle. It was the subject of gossip by everybody and
formed the topic of innumerable newspaper articles, as well
as associated press dispatches. A panic seized upon owners
of domestic herds everywhere and many rushed their cattle
off to market only to meet panic-stricken operators from other
sections and ruinously low prices for their stock.

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST-

*5*

The butchers, venders and consumers were alike alarmed
and afraid to buy, sell or consume beef of any kind.

The Agricultural Society of Illinois appointed of its
members a committee of three to investigate the cause of the
disease, the remedies, and the preventive, if any could be
found. This investigation was conducted in all the districts
in Illinois where the disease had made its appearance, also at
Abilene, Kansas.

We believe it was as thorough in character and as con¬
scientiously made as circumstances would admit. But no
satisfactory cause of the disease was discovered, and of the
various theories maintained none seemed to be entirely satis¬
factory or conclusive.

Soon after the outbreak of the disease the Governor of
New York appointed inspectors and attempted to quarantine
all cattle from the west or northwest. This soon began to
work a hardship on the cattle shippers from Illinois, and the
Governor of that State appointed two commissioners to look
after the interests of the Sucker State cattle boys. This
diplomatic choir of ministers plenipotentiary in all matters
pertaining to bulls of Suckerdom, were heavy weights, intel¬
lectually and otherwise.

We doubt not the State of New York was awed into
respectfully considerate conduct by the magnetic presence of
the mighty geniuses sent into her borders by the Governor
of Illinois. Under the old Quaker rule they must have made
splendid envoys.

This immortalizing act of the Governor of Illinois was
followed by another, the calling of a convention of experts to
assemble in the Sucker Capitol. This convention as a col¬
lection of quondam quacks, and impractical theorists, and
imbecile ignoramuses, was without an equal.

There were in attendance delegates from most of the
northern States ; also two or more from the Canadas.

A portion of the delegates were esculapians of the most
deadly type — others mere political bummers — sent to that

152

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

Convention by their respective Governors to relieve the com¬
munity, for a short time, at least, of a pestilential crew.
Others were so prejudiced as to be utterly unfit to deliberate
on, or investigate anything ; a portion were of that class
who will enjoy especial immunity on the final day, if it be
true “ That unto whom little is given, little will be required.”
There were a few earnest seekers after truth and information
upon the vexed subject of “ Spanish fever,” and the importa¬
tion of Texan cattle, and “ What to do about it.”

The convention as a body, was a prejudiced, impractical
one, filled with a burning hatred of long-horned kine. The
object of the convention was to determine upon a practical
mode of protecting domestic cattle from disease, and to
recommend a practical basis of legislation against the intro¬
duction of Texan cattle.

Upon the organization of the convention it was patent
to the most casual observer that recommendations of absolute
prohibition, for at least eight or ten months in the year, was
the only policy that could or would be adopted, and such was
the case

There was but one man upon that floor, and he an hon¬
orary member from Kansas, that dare raise his voice in behalf
of Texan cattle, and his speech brought forth a storm of indig¬
nation from the members of the convention, for it was exceed¬
ingly unpalatable to hear Texan cattle spoken of in any other
terms than those of the strongest condemnation.

But it was idle for the speaker to point out that an at¬
tempt to prohibit absolutely the products of one State from pass¬
ing through or into another State or to the common markets of
the country, by the legislature enactment of a State, was
clearly in violation of the Federal Constitution, wherein is
delegated to Congress only, the power to regulate commerce
between the States. It was futile to urge the equal rights of
the owners of cattle, no matter whether the cattle’s horns
were long or short, although the owner of the former might
be a citizen of Texas. It was useless to point out the utter

“ EXPERTS IN COUNCIL.’

failure of prohibitory legislation, as exemplified in the case of
several of the western States, to accomplish the design sought,
to-wit : To protect the short- horn cattle from disease. It
were words spent in vain to point out legitimate and legal
quarantin emeasures or methods of attaining the end desired.
There were few' who would heed whilst the arrangement of
nature was pointed out, in that, that the west and southwest
must produce, the northwest fatten, and the east consume the
beef product of the United States; and that one section was
dependent on the other for its ultimate prosperity.

All these and other weighty considerations were urged
upon the attention of the convention ; but their announce¬
ment fell as soft water upon the flinty stone, for it had pre¬
determined on prohibition.

Of the various theories advanced concerning the primal
cause of Spanish fever, three only had any considerable num¬
ber of adherents. The first called the natural or “Sporule”
theory, was advocated if not invented, by the scientists and
doctors who composed in part at least nearly every commis¬
sion sent out to investigate the disease and its causes. This
theory is that the primal cause of the disease is found to be

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

154

a small egg or sporule deposited upon the blades of grass in
Texas, which being eaten by the animal finds its way into the
blood and grows to be microscopic monsters. Disorganiza¬
tion of the blood, disease, the symptoms of which is fever,
and death follows as a kind of natural result.

But it was worth enduring the evils of a perverse gen¬
eration to have heard those sage theorists dilate upon the
devilsh character and proclivities of those horrible sporules.
How their discovery had cost them so much profound scien¬
tific research — how they had dived in the carcass of the de¬
funct bovine — searched his utmost intestine — torn to atoms
and inspected his paunch, and subjected his stomach to the
most rigid scrutiny — bursted asunder his liver,- and looked
into its innermost recess — pried into the secrets of his kid¬
neys _ subjected his bladder -o the severest chemical tests —

EXPERTS HUNTING SPORULES.

looked through powerful telescopes into his dying eye and
discerned the anguish of his departing spirit. But it was in
his gore that their indominitable energy and profound re¬
search was rewarded, by the discovery of the inexpressably
horrible sporule. They well knew that in the very nature of
things he must be somewhere, for it was plain to them that

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST. j

the symmetry and perfection of the universe would have been
incomplete without him — the elements of material nature
would have long since resolved themselves back into original
chaos, if there had been such an omission in creation as the
sporule. They justly felt that the discovery of him was the
crowning glory and most momentous event of the nineteenth
century — if not of all modern times. It was plain that none
since the days of the ancient mathematician engulfed in his
ablutions had so good a reason to cry out, “Eureka! Eure¬
ka 1” But the advocaters of this theory failed to inform the

“THE SOWER OF 8PORULE8.”

waiting world what villain put those Sporules upon the grass
blades in Texas, or from whence he got them, or why he
wanted to make short-horned cattle sick unto death, or
whether he had been told to desist, or warned that drawing
“ back pay ” for services once paid for would not be tolera¬
ted ; or that he was not “ putting things where they would

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

*56

do him the most good.” That fellow, whoever he is and
whatever his malicious intent may be, must be a diabolical
monster and worthy of immediate extermination. His body
should be embalmed in carbolic acid and placed in the cabinet
of those scientists ; there to remain as a trophy of the most
profound scientific research of the nineteenth century. But
in this case it is questionable whether all the investigating
conventions, commissions, doctors and scientists ever did the
cause of truth one iota of practical good. Their learned and
beautifully arranged theories were enunciated and elaborated
with all manner of profound erudite detail. Although in
practice and for all practical good, they were valueless unless
it be as a curious specimen of what great profound thinkers
can do for the relief of their country in distress. Indeed their
bulky disquisitions clothed in high-sounding words when
shorn of their verbiage and compressed into intrinsic truth
and practical common sense, would remind matter of fact
cattle men of the fabled mountain bringing forth the mouse.
In fact the results of the various commissions for the investi¬
gation of Spanish fever reminds one of the ancient royal
commission of sage scientists who spent many days and
weeks investigating and profoundly debating the all absorb¬
ing question of natural history, to- wit : “ Which is the butt
end of a billy goat.”

Aside from the honorary member from Kansas, who was
the party in interest at Abilene, the convention was as eager
to deal a death blow to the new opening stock trade of the
southwest as are a pack of ravenous wolves to devour the
powerless lamb. It was a noticeable fact that Texas as a
State was without a single representative upon the floor of
that convention, although the subject had been brought to
the attention of a large number of drovers sojourning at
Abilene, who did appoint a certain ex-Governor of their State
to be a delegate, but failed as usual to provide funds for de¬
fraying necessary expenses, so he failed to put in an appear¬
ance. So Texas, the State above all others the most inter-

'EST.

157

“ANCIENT SCIENTISTS INVESTIGATING.”
ested, was entirely unrepresented where her most valuable
product was the subject of discussion, and measures adopted
recommending a basis of legislation which effected her for weal
or woe, to the amount of many millions of dollars in value ; and
all for the lack of public spirit and public enterprise of her
citizens.

The recommendation of that convention formed the basis
of legislation enacted by many of the northern States during
the following winter. During the summer of 1868, the Fed¬
eral Government employed to thoroughly investigate the
subject of Spanish fever and its prime causes, manner of con¬
traction, and prevention, Prof. John Gamgee, an English
Veterinary Surgeon who had won distinction in England
during the time when rinderpest made such sad havoc among
the herds of England. This capable gentleman visited all
portions of the United States where Spanish fever had raged,
and also the State of Texas, and made a thorough and practi-

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

158

cal investigation of the disease, endeavoring to trace its pri¬
mal cause, origin, and nature. But we have never seen his
report in print, and we are not sure that the government had
it printed, for the excitement soon abated and Texan cattle
began to appear on market both east and west.

Indeed we have often thought that the outbreak of Span¬
ish fever and the consequent excitement, really served to
draw toward Texan cattle the attention of stock men from
every quarter of the country, and eventuated in their becom¬
ing recognized as a staple commodity upon the markets.

It is the opinion of others that the doctors and scien¬
tists had caught up one of the effects or symptoms of the dis¬
ease and manufactured a fine spun theory which looks plausi¬
ble on paper, but has not one ounce of truth or fact in it. In
Spanish fever like pneumonia in horses, the blood, we opine,
becomes totally disorganized, in fact might be called rctten,
and upon examining it with the microscope a very unnatural
appearance is detected. But the actual cause of the disease
can only be conjectured from this standpoint.

Another, the second theory, is that the disease is solely
and entirely caused by the ticks peculiar to the climate and
country of the southwest. It is argued that only ticky cat¬
tle will disseminate disease ; that every native that dies of
Spanish fever will always be found to have almost one tick
for every hair on his hide ; that his stomach will be found
often to contain ticks although small yet numerous mingled
with the food. It is held, truthfully too, that the large ticks
seen in great numbers on almost all cattle fresh from Texas
that have been shipped direct north, soon yield their hold on
the animal and fall to the ground where they by a process
peculiar to their nature, become as an egg, from each one of
which a thousand or more little ticks will be hatched in a
short space of time, and crawl upon the blades of grass
wherefrom they get on the legs of the grazing animal, and
when it lays down to rest get on to its body. Also the ticks
whilst in this diminutive state are eaten by the domestic ani-

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST

159

mal in great quantities. Whether on the outside of his body
digging into his skin or within his stomach, they are to
the domestic cattle rank poison, which, when a sufficient
amount has been absorbed by the animal’s system, acts in
such a manner as to create fever and death. It is urged in
support of the “ Tick theory ” that the advent of frost, as is
well known to be the case, puts a stop to the spread of the
disease by killing the young ticks. It is also a well known
fact that in every case wherein a ticky herd of cattle came
upon the pasture in contact with natives, that disease was sure
to follow. The cattle thaf were introduced into Illinois via the
Red river route was always very ticky, often having so many
that the actual color of the animal would be hid by the large,
distended, greyish white bodies of the million of ticks which
were clinging to his hide, and sucking blood from him.

Wherever on the pasture fields or prairies these cattle
came in contact and grazed with the domestic stock, pestilen¬
tial disease and death followed with infallible certainty.

The “Tick theory” had for its advocates some able
practical cattle men, some of whom had lost heavily by Span¬
ish fever, and had made close observations and tests to ascer¬
tain the real cause of the disease and its manner of con¬
traction.

The third theory is that the Spanish fever is superin¬
duced by much the same causes, as ship fever aboard emi¬
grant steam ships, to-wit : by hard usage and privation of
tiie usual and necessary rest, food, and water.

The cattle of Texas being wild and free, almost as much
so as the buffalo of the plains in the west, are fretful and
worried by restraint and handling much as is the full grown
wild animal when caged.

It is not uncommon to over-drive and starve the Texan
cattle en route for market. Often in dry seasons water being
scarce herds do not get sufficient for a week at a time,
and often the haste of the drover or his indolence allows

i6o

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

his cattle to be over-driven, and that too without sufficient
food to prevent his stock from suffering.

We leave the reader to form his own opinion which of
the theories stated is the correct one, only adding that a
carefully driven herd of Texan cattle coming via Western
Kansas into the northern States seldom if ever disseminate
disease. If permitted to rest for thirty to sixty days on good
range abounding with plenty of water and grass, they will
not infect the domestic cattle. This we know to be correct.
But whether during this rest from travel and hardship the
fever becomes extinct by the recurperative power of the ani¬
mals, or whether the losing of the ticks, as they invariably
do, rids them of the seeds of disease, we leave the reader to .
form his own opinion, only adding that after the closest ob¬
servation of many cases and often trying to seek out the real
causes of Spanish fever, we are unable to say whether the
“Tick theory'’ or the “ Ship fever theory ” is the correct
one. For both theories have almost unanswerable arguments
in their favor. Of one thing we feel certain, that is, that the
cattle in Texas upon their accustomed range are as healthy
as any cattle in the world.

There is one peculiar characteristic of Spanish fever
among Texan cattle, that is, its presence is scarcely percepti¬
ble to the casual observer, for it never kills a Texan animal,
and effects them so slightly that it requires an experienced
eye to detect its presence in a herd of Texan cattle. Never¬
theless, they do have the disease and occasionally one oi
them will be sick near unto death with it, especially is this
the case with Texan cattle that have been wintered in the
northern States.

It is a well settled fact, settled by every investigation yet
instituted as well as by the unanimous testimony of the
closest observing practical cattle men, that the disease is com¬
municated to the domestic stock only by grazing and laying
upon the same grounds or pasture lands which have been
previously grazed over by Texan cattle.

or THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

161

That to travel upon the same road, to drink at the
same pond of water, to pass through the same shipping yards
or in the same cars, will not furnish the necessary conditions
for contraction of the disease. But, we repeat, the domestic
stock must eat of the same grass that Was just previously
been depastured by the Texan cattle. Whether the seeds of
disease left on the grass are in the shape of ticks, or is a poi¬
son left in and with their saliva or slobbers, or in and with
the urine or residuum deposited upon the grass, or whether
they are the veritable “ Sporules ” of the scientists, is an
undetermined question and one about which practical cattle
men as well as doctors disagree.

We propose to deal with facts or practical effects, rather
than with theories. One thing, there is little use to deny or
gainsay, that there is such a malady as is commonly called
Spanish fever ; or that it is under certain circumstances dis¬
seminated by Texan cattle. It is in ninety-nine cases in one
hundred, fatal in its effects upon the short-horn cattle. While
it is an unsettled question just how the short-horn contracts,
or the Texan disseminates, the disease, none other than an
obdurate man, one who would not or could not, be convinced
by evidence, will longer dispute or disbelieve the actual ex¬
istence, at certain seasons of the year, of the disease among
certain classes of cattle.

In about two to four weeks after the short-horn has been
exposed to the necessary conditions ; that is, grazed over and
rested upon the same pastures upon which certain herds of
Texan cattle have previously been pastured, he may be ob¬
served to become stupid, refuse to eat or drink, inclined to
stand or lie in the fence corners, his head will droop below
its natural position, his ears will lop down beside his head,
his eyes will become nearly fixed, and a wild glaring stare,
will be observed, whilst from his nostrils or mouth, will con¬
stantly drool a whitish ropey slobber resembling excessive
salivary secretion. The animal’s coat of hair will stand up
on end or turn forward, presenting a rough unthrifty appear-

162

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

ance, whilst his back will become arched. Frequent urinary
discharges will occur presenting the appearance to the casual
observer, of pure blood, but rare evacuations of the bowels
will occur, and those will be very hard and dry. The animal
will become intensely hot, and suffer great pain, and when
near dissolution, will often bellow piercing shrieks, expressive
of the racking pain endured. Sometimes they will plunge
about wildly for a few moments and then suddenly fall down
and expire instantly.

If the subject is milk stock, one of the first symptoms of
approaching disease will be the diminution of the supply of
milk, which in one or two days will cease altogether. Milk
cows are more liable for some unknown reason to contract
the disease, than are other cattle.

A sucking calf never takes Spanish fever, no matter if it
sucks its dying or dead mother, as they have been seen do,
without contracting the disease. One short-horn will not
contract the fever from another short-horn, nor will a herd of
short-horns contract Spanish fever from the worst infected
herd of Texans, if they are separated by so much as a parti¬
tion fence. Although the water the short-horns drink may
have come first through the pasture whereon are grazing in¬
fected Texans ; it will not convey the seeds of disease to the
short-horns. We repeat, it is the necessary conditions for
the native cattle to graze over, and lie upon pastures which
have just previously been grazed over by Texans, in order
to contract Spanish fever. No well authenticated instance
of the contraction of the disease in any other manner or
under other circumstances has yet been produced.

It is not difficult generally for an experienced western
cattle man to detect the Spanish fever existing in a herd of
Texan cattle, but it requires close scrutiny and experience,
for the evidences of its presence are not discernable to the
casual observer or inexperienced cattle man. No specific,
infallible remedy has yet been found for Spanish fever, but
enough is known or established as the result of experiments.

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST

163

to warrant the assertion, that if the animal is thoroughly
drenched with any powerful purgatives, so as to relieve the
system or all food while the animal is in the earlier stages
of the disease, it is quite likely to recover. But inasmuch as
the animal’s stomach or manifold becomes as dry as a gunny
sack, and the contents as dry and hard as a pine board,
looking much like a hard sponge, in the latter stages of the
disease, it is plain that physics or any other remedy can
not afford relief. It has been found very beneficial as a
preventive and cure to feed green corn, to exposed animals,
or those taking the disease. It is found that corn will in this
case as in “ milk sickness,” neutralize the poison, much as the
essence of corn, familiarly called whisky, will neutralize the
poison of the rattlesnake.

Many cattle men are fond of neutralizing snake bites.
In fact, some of them neutralize so often that they dream of
snakes being in many disgustingly familiar attitudes, especially
about their boots.

Perhaps no one man sustained greater losses, both direct
and indirect, from Spanish fever, than John T. Alexander, of
Morgan County, Illinois. Certainly no man in that State or
any other has handled more Texan cattle on his own account
than has he. Indeed, there are few, if any, who have handled
more cattle of all classes than has Mr. Alexander. Begin¬
ning when he was a lad of thirteen years to assist his father,
then an extensive drover from Ohio to the eastern markets,
he gradually grew to the business for which he had a natural
taste, and great, good judgment — two indispensible qualifi¬
cations for the successful cattle man. Although a Virginian
by birth, he was reared in Ohio, spending his youthful days
in aiding his father drive cattle from that State over the Alle¬
ghany Mountains to the Philadelphia, Baltimore, New York
and Boston markets. At the age of twenty years, his father
having met one of those severe reverses so common to the
life of the drover or cattle shipper, young Alexander deter
mined to try the West on his own account. Accordingly but

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

I64

a few short weeks elapsed before he might have been seen in
St. Louis, looking for something to do in the line of his chosen
business, without capital, other than his abilities and energy.
He was not afraid of work, and gladly accepted a situation
upon a moderate salary, to aid Christian Hays, then one of
Louis’ heaviest operators, in his live stock transactions. At
that early day such a convenience at live Stock Scales for
weighing animals alive was unknown, or if known, unused so
far west as St. Louis. It was the custom to select an average
bullock, slaughter him, weigh the carcass, and then from that
compute the average weight of the entire herd. It was the
custom then in vogue for the drover and the purchaser to
select, or arrive at the average steer, by choosing alternately
one the best and heaviest steer, the other the lightest and
meanest steer, until all but one steer was chosen. This, of
course, was taken for the average. It is easy to see that
much depended upon the judgment of the parties who did
the selecting, If the drover was a better judge than the
buyer, he was sure to get the better of him, and vice versa.
Young Alexander was soon detailed to average a drove for
his employer, and the manner in which he did that duty, the
mature judgment, the “cattle sense” which he evinced, was
noticed by Mr. Hays, and he concluded that young Alexan¬
der possessed abilities fitting him for superior duties, and at
once put him into commission and sent him to Central Illi¬
nois to buy fat cattle for the St. Louis market. Mr. Hays
made no error in sending the young cattle man out with in¬
structions to buy upon his own judgment, for it was more and
more apparent from day to day that young Alexander well
understood his business.

In a few months, after several trips to Central Illinois,
he determined to feed a moderate sized drove on his
own account. His friend Hays was quite willing to’ aid him
to accomplish the undertaking by loaning any needed funds.

After spending two or three years in operating in live
stock in connection with Mr. Hays, young Alexander deter-

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

165

mined to drive a herd of two hundred and thirty head of fat
cattle of his own feeding to the eastern market. In those days
there were no railroads extending into Illinois. Sending west¬
ern cattle direct to the Atlantic coast markets was an experi¬
ment never before extensively tried, and it required a man of
will and energy to undertake and execute the effort, for it was
not only a great hazard, but required the entire summer to
accomplish it. Great care had to be exercised, and the herd
prudently managed and carefully driven, to prevent a ruinous
shrinkage in flesh and condition. The cattle had been full
fed during the previous six months, and were well fatted.
Upon the skill of the drover in handling his herd depended
the retaining or losing of this flesh or condition. No one un¬
derstood how to handle a drove of fat cattle better than Mr.
Alexander, and it is needless to add that he was successful.
After driving over the broad prairies of Illinois and Western
Indiana, feeding the cattle upon the natural grasses while
upon the prairies — through the timbered portion of the re¬
mainder of his journey, turning them upon the fenced pas¬
tures of the farmers — he arrived in Albany, New York
State, just in time to meet a purchaser, at thirty-one dollars
per head, delivered in Boston, Mass. This price was con¬
sidered very satisfactory, although it looks to a cattle man of
the present day to be a very low figure. But everything was
proportionately lower then, and one dollar would buy as much
land or other valuables, as will ten dollars at this time. As a
proof that Mr. Alexander made a good sale we add that his pur¬
chaser lost money on the cattle, not because they were not
good, but because the Boston markets were too low.

After operating for three or four years longer as a trader,
Mr. Alexander decided to purchase land, and embark in farm¬
ing and cattle feeding exclusively. Accordingly in 1848 he
made his first investment in real estate, selecting lands in
Morgan County, Central Illinois, as being the best in the
State. The first purchase was made at three dollars per
acre for a large tract of land, still owned by Mr. Alexander,

1 66

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

and now worth not less than seventy-five dollars per acre,
and is located upon the T. W. & W. Railway, near a station
named after the extensive cattle shipper.

Indeed, there are few, if any, superior lands for agricul¬
tural or pastoral purposes within the limits of the U nited States,
than are found in Central Illinois, and in that district there is
no better lands than are those selected by Mr. Alexander.

Central Illinois has become universally wealthy by corn
raising and hog and cattle feeding, or, in other words, making
the live stock product of other regions fit for eastern markets
and consumption.

The manner oi corn feeding cattle is familiar to most
northwestern men, but as it is a business of great importance
and magnitude ; one in which millions of dollars are annually
invested ; one that engages the attention and efforts of thou¬
sands of enterprising, energetic men ; and one that doubles
the value of every head of cattle fed, of which there are
many thousands ; it is deemed worthy of more than a passing
notice. The best inland corn growing regions, where corn
can be produced or bought cheaply are the cattle feeding cen¬
ters. The farmer, who is often a feeder also, devotes his
whole attention during the spring and summer months, to
planting and cultivating a large crop of corn. When the
fall season arrives, and the corn begins to mature, it is cut
and shocked, which process consists in cutting and placing in
the center, all the corn on a space of ground equal to four¬
teen or sixteen corn hills square. The corn stalks are cut
off near the ground, and are set up snugly together, forming
a compact shock, which is allowed to stand in the field until
it is fed. A few weeks before the grass in the pasture fails,
the feeder begins to give his cattle corn, at first but little,
gradually increasing the amount until the cattle become
thoroughly accustomed to it, without gorging or foundering.
When the pasture becomes bare of grass, the cattle are
brought into the feed yards, and there daily fed for from four
to six months. The feeder’s outfit is usually an ox team of

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

I67

one or more pairs of cattle, which are attached to a wagon,
upon which is placed a long, rude, strong rack, much like a
hay frame, upon which the shock corn is thrown, then drawn
from the field to the feed yard. Entering the yard with his
team, the feeder mounts the load, and with a stake or standard
from the rack, throws the corn to the ground, first upon one
side then upon the other, while the team moves around a
beaten circuit which they soon become accustomed to follow,
and which is soon marked by a high ridge of corn-stalks,
which in muddy, rainy times, forms a dry spot or circle, as
well as an excellent bed in cold weather.

The ground is literally floored or paved with corn stalks
in the feed yard, and the cattle are allowed to eat as much as
they desire, and that too of the best ears of corn. An aver¬
age sized bullock will eat and waste, one-half bushel of corn
each day, and will become, in time, very fat. The usual
gain in four to six months feeding, is from two to three hund- *
red pounds. Extra good feeding of extra good cattle, will
often make greater gains. Many feeders prefer to feed
husked or snapped corn, which is fed in boxes or troughs.
There is less waste of corn, but this method requires feeding
hay, or straw for roughness.

When shock corn is fed, two yards are provided, in which
the cattle are fed alternate days. Whilst they are being fed
in one, a herd of swine are eating up the waste and offal in
the other. One to two hogs to each bullock are thus made
fat. The profits on the hogs fatted, is no inconsiderable item
jn the feeding operation.

To secure the hogs to follow the feeding cattle, sometimes
the whole country is scoured, and occasionally resort is had
to distant counties. This branch of trade, like all others,
developes characteristics peculiar to itself. In Central Illi¬
nois, a noted cattle feeding district, resort is sometimes had
to southern counties for stock hogs to follow cattle. Those
counties less adapted to corn production, but abounding in
heavy forests of oak, hickory and walnut, which furnish

1 68 SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

mast, upon which the industrious long-nosed, cat-hamed por-
cines, indigenous to those regions, subsist. When the local
trader becomes aware of their value, he will industriously
seek them out, gather them into small squads, and ship them
to central portions of the State, where, with a manner the
most bland, he will seek to sell them to some cattle feeder.
These itinerant pig-pedlers are of very doubtful morals, or
virtue, and usually reside upon a State road, or public thor¬
oughfare in a hilly district, where the yellow clay soil is up¬
permost ; usually a few miles east of some pleasant plains.
These pig venders are genuine heroes, and often hail from
“ Pinckney ville,” or other mellifluous regions. Should the

A "PINCKNEY VILLE” PIG VENDER,
reader ever journey in those regions, he will not fail to hear
of, or meet, one of those “heroes,” and will know at once
that he is in the presence of unappreciated greatness, of which
he will be AWare.

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

I69

There is quite a diversity of opinion among feeders, as
to the most profitable manner of feeding, as well as to kinds
or classes of cattle to feed. Many hold, and practice a sys¬
tem of full feeding, and selling off of the grain feed. Whilst
others feed less grain during the winter, and finish fatting on
the pasture the following spring and summer. Others
simply “ rough through ” and fatten exclusively on the grass.

Many feeders will not feed other than graded Durhams,
or natives, whilst just as respectable and successful a class
prefer the Texan, or southern cattle. Of course the whole
matter hinges upon the question of profit.

• ; The native to begin with cost fully twice as much as the
southern bullock, and when fat sells for a better price per
pound than Texan. But when both are fat, the difference in
price per pound is not so great as the difference in first cost ;
but the native feeds better, eats corn to better advantage,
takes on more fat on corn feed than does the Texan ; but the
southern bullock excels the native in fatting on grass — makes
great gains in less time than the native.

It may be truthfully stated, that for fatting on corn, the
native excels and is therefore preferable, whilst for “ rough¬
ing through,” and fatting on grass, the Texan is superior.

The feeder who reverses this order, in handling either
class, rarely does it to his profit. Nevertheless a herd of
Texan cattle which has been delivered in the north during
the early part of summer, and has become thoroughly rested
and climated before winter, can be made really fat on corn.

In various experiments made in feeding Texan cattle, it
has been demonstrated that to shell the corn is of great ad¬
vantage. It has been found that the cob, being hard and
unnutritious, is unpalatable to them, and is a great obstacle to
successfully feeding them. But as a rule, to “ rough through”
and fatten on the grass, is the most profitable manner to han¬
dle Texan cattle in the Northwestern States.

In Central Illinois many of the most successful dealers
in Southern cattle, feed them upon the blue grass pastures,

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST-

171

and never lot them up, but aim only to bring them to grass
the following spring in strong thrifty condition, upon which
they will soon become fit for the shambles of New York.
This is the manner in which Mr. Alexander handles his large
purchases of Texan cattle.

For many years, all the suitable cattle of the Missouri
Valley region, were driven to Central Illinois, and there, by
six months corn feeding, made fat, and doubled in value.
Thus, by combining the products of those rich corn lands, as
much money or value was created in six months, as the pro¬
ducer of the unfatted steer had made in three years handling
or rearing the same animal. This fact soon became patent
to the thinking agriculturists, and it was not long before the
corn-growing portions of Illinois became either a cornfield or
feed yard, annually sending to eastern markets thousands of
fatted cattle. In this business Mr. Alexander saw and real¬
ized great profit and was fast becoming princely wealthy.
But there occurred a year of severe drouth, something un¬
common to that country, cutting off the corn crops upon the
uplands, so that corn in sufficient quantities for cattle-feeding
purposes could be found only on the river bottoms, and to
those sections Mr. Alexander took his herds and full fed them,
during the winter of 1854 and 1855. When spring came
no buyer offered him such prices as he thought he ought to
have, so he determined to drive and ship on his own account.
At that date the nearest railroad terminus, or shipping point,
was at Logansport, Indiana, a distance of three or foui hund¬
red miles, and hither he turned his droves, carring them to
Toledo, Ohio ; thence to Dunkirk by lake steamer. Then
recarring them to New York city, from whence a part was
sent to Boston. In this transaction Mr. Alexander did not
realize so much by several thousand dollars as he had had
offered him for his cattle in the west.

Instead of discouraging him from future shipments it
only excited his energy and determination to retrieve his
losses in the same place and business wherein he had sus-

172

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

tained them. Many readers would suppose that no man
would leave a business in which he had in a few years ac¬
quired four thousand acres of fine, valuable land, and ten
thousand dollars in cash, to engage in another ; especially
one that was uncertain, and had already lost the snug sum
of five thousand, dollars. But if they do so think they do
not understand the peculiar turn of mind, and temperament
necessary to constitute a cattle shipper. Nothing arouses
his will and determination more surely and drives him to
greater ventures than losses on the first shipments. Like the
devotee of the card table, he determines to get even and
more. This determination has ruined many good men and
turned them out of house and home.

Mr. Alexander’s loss only seemed to make him determined,
and contrary to the advice of his financial friends, he engaged
in shipping cattle via Chicago to the eastern markets during
the year 1856, but without making or losing to speak of. But
during the following year, in connection with his partner, he
shipped via the T., W. & W. Railway, then just completed,
ten thousand head of cattle, and at the end of the season
divided the snug sum of sixty thousand dollars.

But success only stimulated him to greater undertakings,
and the following year, his partner having been killed in a
railroad accident, Mr. Alexander shipped eleven thousand
head of cattle, but with more loss than profit. The succeed¬
ing year (that of 1859) fifteen thousand head of fat cattle
went east as the contribution or business of Mr. Alexander.
To sav that this years’s operation was a losing one, is putting
it mild, it was “a ripper,” as a cattle man would style it. Mr.
Alexander’s losses were equal to, or greater than the value
of his entire estate, but the public did not know it, and still
had the greatest confidence in his ability. During the two
succeeding years but little money was made or lost, although
an immense business was done.

Then the civil war broke out. There were many thousands
of cattle and mules in the State of Missouri, one 01 the States

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

*73

deeply involved in the struggle, in fact was largely the battle
ground. This turn of affairs made the tenure of personal
property very insecure in that State, and most owners were
willing to sell at any price, no matter how low. This offered
a good opportunity to venturesome cattle men, and Mr.
Alexander’s financial condition was such that he was pre¬
pared to take any manner or kind of risks to retrieve his
financial losses. Accordingly he put several energetic buyers
in Missouri, with instructions to penetrate the disturbed dis¬
tricts, and, where war’s dreaded cloud hung darkest and tnost
threateningly, there buy every steer or mule they could\(of
course as cheap as possible) and send them to his farm \ in
Illinois. Two years, affording such opportunities for go0d
investments, were sufficient to make good all previous losses
o£ Mr. Alexander. At the close of the war an inventory o\f
his assets would have shown seventy-two hundred acres o^
land, worth seventy-five dollars per acre, one hundred thou4
sand dollars in bank ; his pastures full of cattle, and not one
dollar of debt. One would think that such an exhibit would
satisfy any one’s greatest desires for wealth, so far at least, a£
to prevent him from engaging in any operations in whicfi
there was great hazard ; but such was not the case with Mf.
Alexander, he, like the ancient conqueror of the same
name, looked and longed for other and greater conquests ;
but, different to his ancient namesake, he soon found a “ New
World,” which he essayed to conquer. It was the purchas¬
ing and improving of what was then called the “Sullivan,”
but afterwards the “ Broad Lands” farm, a tract of twenty-
six thousand acres of land, near the T., W. & W. Railway,
in Champaign County, Illinois. This purchase in connection
with heavy losses by cattle shipping, also a loss of fully
seventy-five thousand dollars by Spanish fever, to this may be
added the repudiation of a contract by certain railroads,
whereby he was made to sustain a loss of near two hundred
and fifty thousand dollars, produced a crisis in his affairs of
the gravest nature. As is usual in such cases, every effort

JOHN T. ALEXANDER.

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST'

'7 5

put forth to prevent impending disaster only brings additional
distress. So in his case. Finally he took a survey of his
affairs, and concluded to sell his Broad Lands farm, accord¬
ingly hunted up a purchaser in the person of the agent of a
Canadian Company, and contracted to sell him the entire
tract, for six hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars. Of
this transaction he hastened to inform his most pressing
creditors. But alas for him, when the time came to ratify the
contract, the Canadian Company refused to abide the contract
of its agent, and the land trade failed. This precipitated the
impending crisis. In compliance with the advice of his
friends, he turned his entire estates and immense personal
property — in short all his assets — into the hands of three as¬
signees for the benefit of his creditors.

This was perhaps the darkest, bitterest year of his ex¬
istence — a year of crushing disappointment and pungent
humiliation, such as a high ambitious sensitive soul could
scarce endure. It was crushing and overwhelming to Mr.
Alexander, for he had ever been a man of the keenest sensi¬
bilities ; of the most exalted honor in all his business trans¬
actions ; above petty spites or contemptible actions. The
word “ failed,” which was bandied about from mouth to
mouth, grated harshly upon his ears and wounded deeply his
inmost soul and rendered life itself almost an undesirable
burthen.

Such were the results of a few years of persistent cattle
shipping in connection with incidental disastrous business
transactions. A fortune of colossal proportions, riven to
shreds, as is the oak by the lightning’s hot bolt. Scattered as
if by a cyclone, as are the fragments of a rock riven ocean
steamer.

Notwithstanding the liabilities reached the enormous
figures of twelve hundred thousand dollars, the estate was
ample to pay every creditor, dollar for dollar, and leave Mr.
Alexander about two thousand acres of the best of his Mor¬
gan county lands, without a single legitimate unpaid claim

SKETCHES OK THE CATTLE TRADE

176

outstanding. With an energy peculiar only to men of real
ability — but never found in the fungus brains of the maudlin
goslings who flash like a meteor athwart the business hori¬
zon and die out never to be seen or heard of again, save as
some abandoned loafer or drunken saloon ornament — Mr.
Alexander set himself about retrieving his lost fortunes, and
in his success during the last two years can be taken as a
harbinger of the future, the time will be quite brief before
his Morgan county estate will be as large as ever.

His greatest losses occurred in 1868, during the great
excitement about Spanish fever, and were carried until 1870,
in which a desperate effort was made to cover, and fully
seventy thousand head of cattle were shipped to the eastern
markets. This is the largest year, or season’s business ever
done by a single individual, in marketing cattle, in the Uni¬
ted States, or perhaps in the world.

Mr. Alexander regards himself as taking his third start
in the world — one at St. Louis, one at the beginning of the
war, and one now.

His first nnancial friend was Christian Hays, of St.
Louis ; his second was Thomas Condell, for many years
President of a strong banking institution of Springfield, Illi¬
nois, and a man who had almost unerring judgment in busi¬
ness matters, especially those pertaining to cattle transac¬
tions — one who stood by and aided with money and council,
his friends and business patrons in the darkest hours as well
as in the brightest. More than one cattle man remembers
the name and fidelity of Thomas Condell with feelings of the
deepest gratitude, if not of love and veneration. He has
some years since retired from active business, greatly to the
regret of many cattle men of Central Illinois. It seems
strange that of ‘the many bankers who in former years were
more than willing to loan their money to Mr. Alexander, not
one was willing, alter he had met his great reverses, to aid
him in his effort to recuperate his shattered fortune, although
he had paid In full every legitimate claim against him Yet,

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

I 77

it is said, “ Where there is a will there is a way,” and Mr
Alexander certainly had the will and a good' vigorous one at
that.

Finally to him came Geo. Wilson, a banker of Geneseo,
Illinois, a man of considerable ready means and a shrewd
operator ; one who has made his money largely out of cattle,
and with cattle men ; one who is blessed with that rare quality
called “ Cattle sense” — an article quite rare among bankers
— and proposed to furnish all cash needed to stock up Mr.
Alexander’s ands. This he did for two years, besides paying
for thee thousand fine cattle, at panic prices, during the fall
of 1873, for the pastures and feed yards of Mr. Alexander.
These cattle will be grazed on blue grass pastures until Feb¬
ruary, and then be fed corn on the pastures until spring.
Then they will be grazed on the blue grass pastures and fatted,
which requires but few month’s to accomplish.

But we can not close this imperfect sketch without offering
a few thoughts upon the life and labors of such men as Mr.
Alexander. No right thinking man can regard them other
than public benefactors, and as such, are of much greater con¬
sequence and benefit in a substantial way than many think.
They take from the feeder’s yards his fatted stock, and four
times out of five pay him more than it is worth, and that in
cash without delay or serious inconvenience. By their per¬
severance and business tact they are able to get the lowest
rate of freight possible, which the local feeder, nine times in
ten, gets the benefit of, in the increased price obtained for his
fat stock, *

We do not hesitate to assert that the cattle men of
the northwest, and especially those of Central Illinois,
owe to J ohn T. Alexander a debt of gratitude for many hun¬
dreds of thousands, yes, millions of dollars, distributed among
them by his liberal hand. We confidently affirm that for
more than ten years he added from three to ten dollars per
head to the value of the cattle fatted in Central Illinois,
which were and are many thousands of head, annually. Mr.

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

I78

Alexander is not above fifty-three years of age, is tall and of
commanding appearance, looks hale, fresh and youthful, is of
sanguine mental temperament, and naturally impulsive. He
is very quiet and unassuming in manners, speaks but little,
and never in a loud or boisterous tone, is affable, social,
warm-hearted ; appreciates true manhood, is upright, honor¬
able, and high-minded in his business transactions. No su¬
perior has gone before him, and there are none to follow
after him.

CHAPTER X.

THE EFFECT OF THE SPANISH FEVER EXCITEMENT ON THE ABI¬
LENE CATTLE MARKET - AUCTION SALES - LASSOING BUFFALO

- PROHIBITORY LEGISLATION IN ILLINOIS - RESISTING AND

AMENDING THE BILL - CERTIFICATES UNDER SEAL - THE NO¬
TARY PUBLIC - CONTRACT WITH RAILWAY COMPANY - OPENING

OF CATTLE TRADE, 1 869 - THE CONDUCT AND CHARACTER.

OF JUNTA, WHICH BUILT, AND FIRST OPERATED THE K. P.

RAILWAY - CHARLEY STRANSENBACK - T. J. ALLEN - J. B.

HUNTER.

Fully seventy-five thousand cattle arrived at Abilene
during 1868 ; one-fourth of which were taken by Illinois
grazers and shipped to pastures during the month of June.
Several thousand were taken by territorial operators. But
when the Spanish fever excitement broke out, all trade and
demand ceased, and a dullness, amounting to distress ensued.
Finally, .great uneasiness began to be manifested by the dro¬
vers who had not sold, lest there would be no more demand,
and many began to talk of driving off to other points. Es¬
pecially was this the case with those who had driven mixed
or stock herds, for which there was little or no demand. As
it had proved futile to try to prevent Texans from bringing
stock cattle to market, the next thing was to find buyers for
such as were there. The parties interested in Abilene were
anxious to make it a complete market for everything in the
line of live stock that was brought to it. Finally the plan ot
advertising a large semi-monthly public sale of stock cattle to
take place at the shipping yards was hit upon and a large
number of handbills, dodgers, &c., announcing the auction
sale, were provided, and young men were sent by train all

i8o

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

over western Missouri and Iowa, eastern Nebraska and Kan¬
sas, to distribute them. The first sale was largely attended,
and one thousand head of stock was sold at satisfactory pri¬
ces. Before the day arrived for the second sale, every herd
of stock cattle on the range was sold. Such was the result
of the advertising done. But no buyers for the grown cattle,
or beeves, arrived, and it was thought best to do something
to call public attention to the fact that there were twenty-five
thousand or more grown cattle for sale at Abilene. The plan
adopted was to send east a car load of wild Buffalo, covering
the side of the car with advertisements of the cattle. But
how to get the Buffalo — that was the question.

The frame or slats of an ordinary stock car were greatly
strengthened by bolting strong, thick plank parallel with the
floor, and about three feet above it, to the sides of the car.
Putting in a camp outfit, and supplies abundant in one car,
and a half dozen horses, well trained to the lasso, in another
car, a party of half a dozen, departed for the buffalo regions,
out into which the Kansas Pacific Railway was then being
operated. Arriving at Fossil Creek siding, the cars were put
upon the side track, and camp pitched. The horses were
unloaded by means of an inclined plane or platform, tempo¬
rarily improvised for that purpose. In the party were three
or four Texan cow boys, also three California Spaniards, all
experts with the lasso. After partaking of a hearty dinner,
the party saddled up the ponies, and started out in quest of
the buffalo, Although they were not plenty upon that por¬
tion of the plains at that date, yet the time was brief before a
huge old bull was spied, and immediately preparations to
chase and lasso him, were made. Circling around, he was
started in the direction of the railroad, and when within a few
hundred yards thereof, a sudden dash was made upon him by
two Spaniards, and in the twinkling of an eye their lariats
were around his neck, So soon as the old monarch found
himself entangled, and- his speed checked, he beeame furi¬
ously enraged, and alternately charged first at one and then

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST'

181

the other of his pursuers. It was noticeable how intensely
angry he became ; he would drop his head and stiffen his
neck, set his tail erect over his back, and with eyes green
with pent-up wrath, await the near approach of his tormen¬
tors. So soon as one came near, he would plunge at him,
and pursue at his utmost speed, so long as there was the
least hope of overtaking him. Then stop and whirl about,
and attack his nearest pursuer. After getting him quite close
to the railroad track by stratagem, the third lasso was adroitly
thrown around his hind legs, and in a jiffy , the great behe¬
moth was lying stretched, helpless upon the ground. It was
vain for him to struggle, the well trained horses watched his
every motion and kept the lariats as tight as fiddle-strings,
shifting their positions dexterously, to check or counterbal¬
ance his every motion. When he ceased to struggle, his
legs were securely tied together with short splashes of rope
or thongs previously prepared for the purpose, then the
lassos were taken off, and after adjusting the inclined plane,
a block and tackle were brought into requisition, one end
of which was attached to his head, the other to the top of
the opposite car door, and before the hot panting bison was
aware of what was being done, he was aboard the car ; his
head securely bound to a post of the car frame, and his feet
relieved. He would not bound up and show fight, but lay
and sulk for hours. In two days ten full grown bull buffaloes
were lassoed, but the weather being very hot, four of them
died from the heat and the anger excited by capture. Three
became sullen, and laid down before they could be got near
the cars, so but three were got aboard in good condition.

It was very exciting to witness the feat of lassoing one
of those powerful monsters ; to see how skillful those Span¬
iards could throw the lariat, and above all, how well trained
were the horses. From the moment the lasso was thrown
they seemed to know just what motion or maneuver was
necessary to counteract whatever motions the captured animal
might make. It is astonishing what strength they develop ;

1 82

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

how much they can draw forward, or hold back by the horn
of the saddle, fully twice their own weight. It is impossible
to divert their attention from the captured animal or entangle
them in the lasso. They know by experience the conse¬
quences.

After hanging upon each side of the car, a large can¬
vass, upon which a flaming advertisement was painted, in
striking colors, of the cattle at or near Abilene, it was sent
through to Chicago via St. Louis, eliciting a great amount of
attention and newspaper comment. Upon arrival at Chicago,
the buffalo were turned upon the enclosed commons of the
stock yards, and afterwards presented to Prof. Gamgee, an
English veterinary surgeon, who sent their stuffed hides to
London. This advertising feat was followed by an excursion
of Illinois cattle men to the West. The party was taken to
the end of the railway track, and upon returning to Abilene,
was taken upon the prairies and shown the many fine herds
of cattle. Several excursionists were induced to invest, and
in a few days the market assumed its wonted life and activity.
Indeed it seemed to rebound from the depressing effects of
the Spanish fever excitement, and long before the cold weather
set in, the last bullock was sold. The year of ’68 closed with
Abilene’s success as a cattle market of no mean proportions,
assured beyond cavil or doubt. Indeed Texan cattle became
suddenly very popular and in great demand for packing pur¬
poses, and those of suitable size and quality outsold the short¬
horns of the same weights. It was held that a fat Texan was
better for packing purposes than a native ; that their meat
was “marbeled,” that is, the fat distributed in alternate lay¬
ers with the lean fiber, and when cut presents the appear¬
ance of variegated marble.

The fall of 1868 afforded the first brief season in which
a dollar could be made by shipping Texan cattle to market ;
during which time the parties, who had expended so much
labor and money at Abilene, and had sustained such great
losses, were able to cover a small portion thereof.

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

I84

The speculation in buying and shipping cattle was not
their chief source of profit, but there existed a written con¬
tract between the Kansas Pacific Railway and themselves,
wherein the Railway Company agreed to pay them one-eighth
of the gross amount of freights that they would procure to
be shipped over the Railway, east from Abilene. It was
upon, or in consideration of the guarantees of this contract,
that they had made such lavish expenditures of money and
labor to establish a permanent cattle market and shipping
depot at Abilene. The contract was not limited as to time,
but was by its terms, as perpetual and binding as the charter
upon which the road was built. The Illinoisans very natu¬
rally thought that if they could but establish, beyond compe-
tion, Abilene as the place to sell and ship cattle, no matter at
what cost in 1868, that in future years they would have but
an easy time, and but little effort to reap great profit. Not
dreaming for a moment but what the Railway Company would,
stand up manly and honorably to its part of the contract.
But in this they soon found they were in great error. When
the Railway offices at St. Louis were visited for the purpose
of settling up for the first season’s work, in which about
twenty-five hundred cars of cattle had been loaded at Abilene,
they were blandly informed by the executive committe of the
Railway Company, that the committee had concluded that it
had made a mistake in making such a contract, and had de¬
termined to demand the cancellation thereof, and until that
demand was complied with the Railway Company would pay
no part of the amount or sum already earned, and in future
years would not furnish. a single car to any parties desiring to
load at Abilene. This was the style and character of honor,
the recompense, the honorable treatment (?), the little piping
President, had assured, in the beginning would be accord¬
ed to such parties as would load their trains with east¬
ward bound freight. It was honesty and honor indeed (?)
with a vengeance. It was idle to remonstrate, or point out
the labors, losses and expenditures which had been incurred

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

185

to open up and establish the cattle trade. It was futile to
show them wherein they were acting in mean, bad faith, or
how their proposed course would bring financial ruin on the
heads of their best friends and servants. To all such appeals
the committee was as deaf and callous, as mean, dishonest,
avaricious men could be.

Rather than to cancel that contract, the Illinoisans offered
all the establishments for the convenience of cattle trade at
Abilene, for one-fourth of their cost ; but this the committee
would not accept — nothing but cancellation would it have.
To obtain this, it proposed to make a contract at a lower rate,
such as it claimed the Railway Company could afford to give,
and the Illinoisans afford to work for, but without cancella¬
tion of the original contract it would do nothing ; but fight
and seek to ruin the very men that in the beginning it so cor¬
dially pledged itself to uphold and sustain. After several
ineffectual efforts to adjust matters, and obtain the money so
dearly earned, the Illinoisans decided, rather than to enter
into a legal contest, to accede to the committee’s unjust de
mand for cancellation, and then for two of the three brothers
to withdraw from any connection with the Abilene enterprise,
and leave the younger one (who had first conceived the pro¬
ject), to continue its operation. When this was done — the
contract cancelled — the money was paid ; an amount not
equal to one-third of the expenditures incurred by the Illi¬
noisans previously in establishing the cattle market and ship¬
ping depot at Abilene.

During the pending of the controversy between the rail¬
road company and the Illinoisans, the Legislature of Illinois
met in regular session. From the Danville Senatorial District,
which included Tolono and most all that portion of country
which had suffered losses by the introduction of Texan cattle,
via the Mississippi river, came a State Senator, elected and
specially deputed to secure the passage of an act totally pro¬
hibiting the introduction of Texan cattle into the State of
Illinois. And in pursuance of this purpose he introduced a bill,

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

1 86

the provisions of which were absolute prohibition of long-horn
kine, no matter where raised, wintered or fatted. It was im¬
possible for language to convey or express stronger proscrip¬
tive provisions, than those found in that bill. It was not only
sweeping in its provisions as to Southern .cattle, but at all
times of the year, and under all circumstances, even propos¬
ing to debar Southern cattle from passing through the State
by rail, or otherwise to the eastern markets. In short its pro¬
visions could not have been made more prohibitory, nor its
penalties for violation scarce more severe. Inasmuch as the
State of Illinois extends from Lake Michigan to the Ohio
river, every car of freight from the West, whether dead or alive,
must pass through it, in order to reach the eastern markets.
There being no available practical routes either south or north of
it, to the eastern cities. Therefore the success of that meas¬
ure as introduced, would have been, not only ruin to the
Southern cattle trade and all those engaged in it, but absolute
ruin to the Abilene enterprise.

To defeat the measure, or at least modily it, absorbed
the undivided attention of the younger Illinoisan, who held
the Abilene enterprise so near his heart. During a session
of seventy-two days he could have been seen watching and
resisting that bill in all its various stages of passage. In the
Senate where the principal fight y/as made, the bill had some
active enemies, and often could the young Illinoisan have
been seen in earnest consultation with them, discussing or de¬
vising plans to defeat or modify the measure, or so amend it,
that wholesale. ruin would not be entailed upon him. It was
plain, that unless there was some place where Texan cattle
could be unloaded, no one would care to load or ship any of
them, and if none were shipped nothing could be made out
of the Abilene enterprise. That measure did not go before
a committee, that he did not there meet and fight it direct,
or by delaying action upon it. It was perfectly unaccountable
how the clerk of the committee would forget the manuscript
of the bill at his room, always too far off to permit him to

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST-

I87

go and get it in time for that session of the committee. Then
the next meeting, a part of the committee would be unavoid¬
ably absent, attending the sessions of some other committee,
or off on a big drunk if nothing else. No quorum being
present an adjournment would occur. When its considera¬
tion was had, a great effort was made to secure the adoption of
a substitute, which provided ample guarantees and provisions,
a thousand times better calculated to be regarded and en¬
forced, to protect the short-horn cattle from disease, than all
absolute prohibitory measures ever enacted by legislatures.
But the famous convention of experts had recommended
prohibition, and no other idea or principle could be success¬
fully presented. It was found impossible to defeat the meas¬
ure, outright, but upon its final passage in the Senate, an
amendment, permitting wintered Texan or Southern cattle to
come at any time, was adopted. The evidence that the cat¬
tle had been so wintered, should be the certificate of any
officer “bearing seal.” This amendment was adopted by
one majority only, but that was enough. The Illinoisan was
satisfied to have the bill (with the amendment) enacted ; and
to guard it, and prevent the amendment from being stricken
off by the author of the bill, became his daily care.

The Senator from Danville swore terribly, charging that
the very vitals of his pet measure were cut out by the amend¬
ment, and that he should see that the bill was restored to its
pristine provisions. To prevent this, resort was made to the
tactics of delay. It was astonishing how long it took the
public printer to print the bill, and then it took the public
binder at least a week to accomplish what he might have
done in a few hours. When the bill went before the lower
house of the legislature, it was after an inexplicable delay,
referred to the proper committee. It seemed next thing to
an impossibility for that committee to get a quorum at the
sittings, at which that bill was to be considered, and then
when it finally got together, the clerk thereof, who had in
custody the bill, was reported at his room, fully a mile away.

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

1 88

too sick to attend ; so another series of adjournments were
had. Finally, near the end of the legislative session, the
committee hastily considered the measure, and unanimously
decided to report it just as it was without alteration. It was
feared that if the Senate amendment was stricken off, the
time would be too short to pass it. Then the amended bill —
although it was plain, so far as its prohibition clauses were
concerned, would be a dead letter on the statute book — would
perhaps satisfy the enraged populace of the Danville district.
So it was passed on the last day of the session, just as it came
from the Senate, and was signed, although reluctantly, by
the Governor, and thus became a law.

Perhaps no severer struggle against overwhelming num¬
bers, >yas ever witnessed in the history of the legislation of
Illinois. Where one man, an inexperienced lobbyist, a mere
cattle man without means, and almost unaided, successfully
combated a measure of which nine-tenths of the lower house
and a majority of the Senate were in favor ; he practically
defeated it by securing the adoption of such amendments as
made its principal and objectionable clauses entirely inopera¬
tive and worthless.

For it was astonishing the following summer how many
“ wintered cattle ” arrived at Abilene. In fact it was found
difficult to get a steer or cow, four or five years old, without
it having been “ wintered ” somewhere.

And as to those “ certificates under seal,” there was no
trouble to procure them in abundance of a hatchet-faced, black¬
headed limb of the law, a veritable notary public, at Abilene.
He was one of those unprincipled, petty demagogues, whose
highest idea of professional honor was to disclose the secrets
of his client’s business to any one who would give him a pit¬
tance therefor ; one who never failed to betray his employer,
or engage in any low, scavenger work for which he could
get pay, no matter how small the sum — who to this day is
more widely known for his infamy than his ability. He had
been for months oscillating between beggary and starvation,

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

I89

and was only too glad of the opportunity to “ manufacture"
certificates by the dozen, or the cart load, fora small consider¬
ation. Thus he became a convenience to enable cattle ship¬
pers, to evade Illinois’ high sounding prohibitory legislation.

Indeed the long protracted effort of the legislature of
Illinois, in bringing forth that great abortion, only served to
again advertise Abilene, and Texan cattle, much as did the
Convention of Experts, and create an increased feeling in
favor of Texan cattle, and a wide-spread desire to handle
them. So that when the season of 1869 opened, more buy¬
ers than ever before put in an appearance at Abilene, and
trade was decidedly lively, at astonishingly good prices. Many
herds of good beeves were taken at from twenty-five to thirty-
five' dollars per head. A brisk demand sprung up for Texan
stock cattle for ranching purposes in the west.

Before the opening of the cattle season, the young Illi¬
noisan visited the railway general offices at St. Louis, and
made a contract with the Executive Committee of the K. P.
Ry., and then proceeded to Kansas, and put all things in readi¬
ness for a good season’s business.

However, since the Executive Committee had acted in
such bad faith, not to say dishonorable and mean, concerning
the previous contract, the Illinoisan decided to dispose of the
Drovers’ Cottage, and such other real property, except the
shipping yards, as he held at Abilene, so that he would not
be so completely at the mercy of the unprincipled avaricious
Executive Committee. For it had already been seen that so
long as much money was invested in large buildings, which,
without a cattle trade, would not be worth three per cent, of
their cost, the Railway Company had a great advantage with
which to work oppression.

No one would care to own a hotel, with capacity to ac¬
commodate one or two hundred guests, located in the midst
of an unsettled plain, where, without a foreign commerce, it
could have no adequate paying custom. This state of affairs
constituted the advantage that the railway executive commit-

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

190

tee held of the Illinoisans, and the committee well under¬
stood it, and did not hesitate or scruple to take advantage of it
and thus compel the cancellation of the original contract made
with the Illinoisans. It was plain, that without a cattle trade,
the thirty-five thousand dollars invested at Abilene in neces¬
sary accommodations for doing a large cattle business would
have been almost a total loss.

Before the first of May, 1 869, the advance herds of a drive
of one hundred and fifty thousand head, began to arrive, and
soon many buyers were in attendance from every northern
and western territory, even California, Nevada and Washing¬
ton Territory buyers were in attendance. Cattle changed
hands at very satisfactory prices to the Texan drovers. The
lately passed prohibitory law deterred for a few months the
usual quota of Illinois buyers, for they did not know, and it
took a little time for them to learn that so many “wintered
cattle ” were at Abilene. But they too soon became initiated,
and were out in full force, to swell the number of buyers.
Indeed it seemed that Abilene was destined to survive in
spite of the Spanish fever, conventions of experts, and hos¬
tile legislation.

If it did not fail it was not the fault of the Kansas Pacific
Railway’s executive committee, and their Superintendent,
who was a cold, calculating man, not over scrupulous, and
one in whom it was absolutely impossible to inspire or
awaken the smallest particle of warmth or enthusiasm. Indeed
he well merited the appellation of “old frigidity,” from his
near resemblance to an iceberg. But he was like his em¬
ployers, not over scrupulous about repudiating contracts. It
was a day of general rejoicing among the attaches and em¬
ployees of the railway when he took his departure, and gave
place to another, in whom a little blood, and the “milk of
human kindness ” could be found. Instead of the railway
company co-operating with Abilene, as they had engaged to
do, and as any one would naturally suppose they would have
done, to make it the shipping depot ; the cattle point ; and by

OF THE WEST ANX>

JTHWKST.

191

such concentrated effort build up a permanent cattle market
on the line of the road ; instead of this, they began to in¬
trigue, and devise plans to divert as much of the cattle trade
td other points on the road as possible. In pursuance of this
plan, they repudiated every former engagement made, and
spent many thousands of dollars in building shipping yards
at Brookville — a town laid out and owned by the railway com¬
pany or the managers thereof — and at other points west of
Abilene, and gave lower rates of freight per car, per mile,
than was given from Abilene.

Great efforts were made to induce the company to with¬
draw such lands from market as they owned, in the west half
of Dickinson County, and hold them as a reserve for grazing
purposes, and to secure such Congressional legislation as
would have established a national highway on or about the
sixth principal meridian, over which the cattle commerce of
Texas, could and would have flowed on to the line of their
road for many years, undisturbed by State legislation.

But no such enlightened and intelligent policy found
favor with the rail way company. Theirs was one of narrow
selfishness, such as induced them to hazard the loss of the
cattle trade, by dividing and diverting it to points where they
owned, a part at least, of the town site.

Indeed it was the custom of the Junta, who built, and
first operated the Kansas Pacific Railway, to compel the
owner of any town site along their line, to give them one-
fourth to one-half the town site. In penalty for refusing to
comply with the demands, no Depot accommodations would
be furnished — no matter how much business was done at the
station. Thus the proprietors of Abilene gave the Railway
Company the right of way — a strip of land, one hundred feet
wide, through a section of land, a distance of one mile, and
for the distance of one-fourth of a mile, gave an additional
strip of two hundred feet — all in consideration that a good
Depot should at once be erected. The deed conveying the
land was made and recorded ; but what was the surprise and

192

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

chagrin of the proprietors of the town when they saw, after
tedious delay, a shabby clapboard shanty, twelve by fourteen
feet in dimensions, put up on blocks with a pent up platform,
as “ the ample Depot accommodations.” The whole struc¬
ture could not have cost over one hundred and fifty dollars,
and was not as good as a humane man would provide for a
donkey stable. In it was to be found accommodations (?) for
freight arriving and departing ; a freight office ; a telegraph
office ; a ticket office ; a baggage room ; a gentlemen and
ladies’ waiting room. The balance of the enclosed space
we suppose was devoted to the agent, in which to practise
the art of gentility and politeness ; at any rate he was a rare
gem illustrative of all those graces. When the Railway
Company was remonstrated with, it coolly demanded one-
half the town site — both of the land laid off in lots and the
balance outlying. This modest (?) request was declined,
but as a punishment no better Depot was built for four of five
years. This may be taken as an index of character of the
Junta and its manner of treating other towns along its line.
In fact, its tactics and practice were to induce men of energy
and means, by fair promises and advantageous contracts, to
locate and invest their money and labor at some point on the
line, and then remorselessly crush and financially ruin them.
It did not scruple to repudiate contracts, or act in any man¬
ner that would accomplish its mercenary purpose. It is as
fortunate for the welfare of the public, as it is for the interests
of the stockholders of the Railway, that the administration
and management of that line have been changed, and men
installed in power who respect the rights of private individu¬
als ; and who by pursuing an honorable course have and are
making friends for the Railway as fast as its former manage¬
ment made enemies, which is at a rapid rate.

The cattle season of 1869 brought to Abilene many local
traders and shippers, men who bought and sold on the prairie,
and men who bought and shipped to the eastern markets. The
latter class are commonly called cattle shippers, and such as

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

193

appeared on the western markets were usually young men
of energy and more or less good judgment, who made it their
special business to keep posted on the condition of the east¬
ern markets, and especially just where they could profitably
place a car load or two of fat cows or butchers’ steers. The
local dealers and shippers were ever wide awake, looking for

CHARLEY 8TRAU8ENBACH.

chances to invest their usually small capital in a little herd or
bunch of cattle such as they would know just where to place.
Of this class of shippers, perhaps no better type could be
found than Charley Strausenbach, a veritable Dutch boy, as
his name would indicate ; one who came to America in his
extreme youth, and has spent many years roaming over the
North American continent, and has tried every clime and
business, from sailing as ship’s butcher on a Pacific Mail
Steamer, to driving goats from Lower into Upper California,
and even into British America, and retailing their carcasses

194

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

t to the miners, as mutton, antelope or venison, just as suited
the whim or taste of his customer.

If there is any corner on the continent he has not been in,
it is not now known. He is one of those “stubby, pluggy,”
irrepressible Dutchmen, that is always doing something be it
much or little ; always ready to have a good time ; to go any
where, to see anything. In business he is shrewd and hon¬
orable ; loves very well to make money, and full as well to
spend it. He would as soon buy a thousand cattle as a
dozen, but never takes the blues if he can’t buy one. He is
full of energy and get up, always looking for a chance to
make a good speculation. Annually he is found on the frontier
market, and there are but few drovers who do not know
Charley, and have for him a hearty welcome. Perhaps the
entire list of local cattle shippers of the West could not pro¬
duce a more eccentric character than he, and certainly none
has wider acquaintance with the drovers and cow boys.

But there is another class of shippers who do business on
a different scale — those who buy of the largest, fattest herds
of fresh driven cattle, or such as have been wintered in the
Northern States, and are maturely fatted. Usually this
class of shippers send their consignments to eastern mar¬
kets, often to the Atlantic cities. This class of operators
require a much larger capital than the local shipper or he
who sells his stock in the first market he reaches.

There are many good young men engaged in the peri
lous, or hazardous, business of cattle shipping. It requires
a man of more than ordinary good “cattle sense ” and busi¬
ness judgment, and prudence, besides considerable capital, to
be able to continue the business of cattle shipping for any
great length of time without becoming bankrupt.

Every western cattle market annually ruins a full score of
young, ambitious energetic cattle shippers, who begin with a
few thousands, or perhaps only hundreds of dollars, and essay
to take the city of good fortune and great wealth by storm ;
or attempt to climb the slippery pole of speculation, and thus

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

*95

avoid the slow, and long plodding way of constant labor, and
small annual profits. But, “alas! poor Yorrick,” they are
numbered soon among the operators that were, and moodily
meditating upon the mutability of things earthly ; feeling very
much like joining some Church, teaching Sunday School, or
going as Missionary to some far off isle ; drop out of sight
and give place to their successors who are crowding close
upon their heels, more than over anxious to plunge into the
inviting waters of speculation, only in turn to be swallowed
up in the inevitable malstrom of ruin. Strychnine is not more
certain death when swallowed into the physical system, than
is persistent cattle shipping to the financial body. It has
been truly said that whatever Deity may have made, or or¬
dained, He has not yet created the man who can persistently
ship cattle upon the system the business is usually done in
the west, for a term of ten years without an aggregate loss
greater than his gains. Usually in half that time, or less,
the losses are greater than the gains and capital combined.
One of the principle reasons of this is that the cattle ship¬
per becomes reckless, loses his wonted caution and buys to
receive in the future, by which time the markets are often
much lower than the one upon the basis of which he made
the purchase. Again the market is quite liable to decline
between the time of shipment and arrival at destination.

The cattle market is one of frequent violent and sudden
fluctuations, and shippers generally meet more downward
fluctuations than any other kind.

But we introduce our reader to Thomas J. Allen, a cattle
shipper who is fast becoming well and extensively known
throughout the west. He is of that florid complexion and
impulsive temperament, well calculated, if not necessary, to
constitute a cattle speculator and shipper. Born in Illinois,
on a farm, and closely drilled in that staid avocation from
which he gradually deviated by feeding live stock for four or
five years, annually shipping it to market, and just taking
along “a few of hi3 neighbor’s to pay expenses,” which of

196

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

THOMAS J. ALLEN.

course they do. The first ventures were nearly always success¬
ful, and the money seemed so easily made that he finally deci¬
ded to leave the slow-plodding ploughman’s life, and go west
and try his hand exclusively in the great faro game of cattle¬
shipping. Not content to stop at Kansas City, or the near
west, he entered the very recesses of the Rocky Mountains, and
brought from the far famed valleys of San Louis, Wet Mount¬
ain and South Park, fully five thousand head of fatted cattle,
climbing with his herds over the snow-clad peaks in mid Au¬
gust’s hottest day. A more inspiring, beautifully picturesque
scene was never beheld than the long drawn out line of fat
bovines following their leader up the mountain gorges, over
vast snow drifts, up among the ancient peaks where Old
Boreas and hoary winter hold perpetual sway over loftiest
realms. But Mr. Allen is not the man to be daunted by
obstacles or serious difficulties, and more than one herd of

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

197

cattle listened to the echo of his voice of command among the
granite peaks and yawning canyons of the snowy range.
He had the distinguished privilege of shipping the first train
load of cattle from Denver, Colorado. He is a young man
of fine energy, affable address, and one who has many friends
in the West. It matters little whether dame fortune smiles
or frowns, he is ever up and doing. His persistent perse¬
verance will always lead him into business, and the great,
broad, new West affords ample opportunities and facilities for
men of his type to lay well the foundations, and build strong
and high the superstructure of great wealth, and Mr. Allen
is just the man to improve well his great opportunities.

Few men gain national reputation as cattle shippers, for
but few men’s money will last long enough ; or in other
words, few can manage to weather adverse markets, bad pur¬
chases, and occasional mismanagement, for any considerable
length of time. Perhaps there is not a better specimen of a
persistent live stock shipper in the United States, if in the
world, than John B. Hunter, of Illinois, which is the State of
his nativity. A man of near three score years ; and since his
earliest manhood, has been engaged marketing live stock.
At first, his capital being quite limited, he was able to buy
not above twenty-five head of cattle at one time. These he
would drive to the St. Louis market, then the principal, if not
the only one in the West, there being no such thing in the
West as a railroad. In this small way did he begin his trad¬
ing life, and by diligence, energy and persistent application
to business, never shrinking from doing the most irksome
portions of the necessary labor with his own hands, lay the
foundation of a substantial fortune. Indeed, there has been
times in the last twenty years, that he could have retired from
business with a handsome competence, if not actual great
wealth. As year by year passed away his business steadily
increased, his droves became larger and larger, until he be¬
came to be recognized as the largest operator in the St.
Louis live stock market.

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

199

In his early business years, when the season arrived for
moving the hog crop of the country, he was among the most
active, often driving thousands and sending numbers of teams
loaded with hogs, such as were too fat to travel on foot, not
hesitating if need be to drive a team with his own hands. In
later years, when the live stock trade of the Mississippi Val¬
ley developed into larger proportions, his growth in business
was commensurate therewith. All the while he was devoting
his attention to the live stock traffic, he was not unmindful of
his farming interests. His first purchase was a small tract of
scarce more than forty acres of tillable land, to .which he
added such other tracts as time and his improved circum¬
stances would permit. Finally, after a series of successful
operations, he purchased a fine large farm near Greenville,
the finest tract of land in the county. Upon this he made his
permanent home. During the war he furnished many thou¬
sands of cattle to the Union armies. At its close, he returned
to cattle shipping, generally to the Philadelphia market, but
lately to New York.

There are few departments or phases of the live stock
business of the Northwest or West that he is not familiar
with, and of which he has not a practical knowledge, obtained
by actual experience therein. From his earliest manhood he
has been a feeder of live stock, often on a very large scale
and in every known manner of feeding. In yards upon corn,
and in pastures, hay or corn-stalks, and in the stillhouse, he
has been an extensive and successful cattle feeder. He was
among the first to full and successfully corn feed large lots of
Texan cattle, at which he has had extraordinary success. By
an extensive and liberal series of experiments he demon¬
strated the superiority of shelled corn, as being the best
food upon which to fatten Texan cattle, and by that manner
of feeding has produced extraordinary good fat cattle in short
periods of time.

A small herd of Texan cattle fed by him were success¬
fully exhibited at Kansas City, during the Exposition of 1873,

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

200

and were pronounced the fattest ever seen. The herd averaged
near two thousand pounds.

PREMIUM TEXAS CATTLE FED BY JOHN B. HUNTER.
During 1870 he extended his operations west, and was

have not had business t^.

nouTaggregate'of ITS tt^— lad annn-
r The capital to conduct so large a business must neces-
‘ariiv be very large, and the men in his employ, clerks, sh^
drivers and Listants, were little less than a form.dable

^Of course in a business of such “agnitude the losses

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

201

sevdte losses as to compel a suspension of business. But
when that great panic came, the men who were doing the
most business — consequently were the most extended — were
the ones that suffered most. Indeed it was safe, and correct
to conclude, when a man, firm or bank, boasted that they did
not feel the effects of the crisis, that they were doing little or
no business. John B. Hunter stood at the head of a firm, or
house, which at the beginning of the panic was in the midst
of handling a large number of cattle, amounting to many
thousands of head, which had been bought at a previous time,
when no human foresight could have seen the impending finan¬
cial storm which wrecked so many of the strongest men and
business institutions of the United States. His losses were
very severe, this coupled with the persistent continuance of
the financial stringency, compelled a suspension of the house
« which many hundred friends sincerely hope and believe will
be but temporary. The event cast a deep gloom over the
entire cattle business of the West; and precipitated events
of a disastrous nature, from which it will require years for
Kansas City and the western cattle trade to recuperate.

Mr. J. B. Hunter is a man of quiet turn and but few
words — a solid, substantial man, and one who has ever borne
a high reputation for honorable, liberal dealing — one who
commands the highest respect of those who know him best —
a man of steady, temperate, business habits, and one of inde¬
fatigable energy and fine, sound judgment in all matters per¬
taining to live stock — a good financier — in short a genuine
upright, self-made man, who has done great good to his fel¬
low man, and deserves to be entitled a benefactor.

CHAPTER XI.

ABILENE IN ITS GLORY - EFFECTS OF THE CATTLE TRADE UPON

THE FARMERS - THE RAILWAY EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE AGAIN

REPUDIATE THEIR CONTRACT - THE EFFECT - FRIENDS REAL,

AND SPURIOUS - THE LESSONS OF ADVERSITY - REFLECTIONS

UPON A LOST FORTUNE - WINTERING CATTLE IN KANSAS -

STILLHOUSE FEEDING - MAJOR J. S. SMITH.

When the cattle trade at Abilene had withstood so much
bitter and powerful opposition, and still continued to increase,
every one conceded its success, and most of its opponents
and competitors abandoned the contest. Abilene had be¬
come a synonym for Texan cattle, and as a great cattle
market, as widely known as any other one in the United
States. The receipts of cattle each year doubled those of
the previous one. Thus in 1867 thirty-five thousand cattle
arrived, in 1 868 seventy-five thousand, and in 1 869 fully one
hundred and fifty thousand. Throughout the stock regions
of Texas, it was recognized as the only cattle market in
which any considerable number of stock could be sold. It
certainly was the first depot or shipping market Texan dro¬
vers ever had to which they could come, unmolested by mobs
or hostile legislation. Perhaps no point or village of its size
ever had been so thoroughly advertised, or had acquired such
wide-spread fame. One at a distance would suppose from
the many reports, that it was a large town or city of many
thousand inhabitants, instead of a small village of a few hun¬
dred denizens. One morning a newly arrived Southern drover
appeared in the midst of the village, and reigning up his cow
pony, inquired how far, and what direction it was to Abilene.
He was told that he was then in the place. He could scarce

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

204

believe his informer, and broke forth, saying, “ Now, look
here, stranger, you don’t mean this here little scatterin trick
is Abilene.” He was asssured that it was. “ Well I’ll swar
I never seed such a little town have such a mighty big name.”
No point in the west of five times its resident population, did
one-half the amount of business that was done at Abilene.
And in the days of its full tide in cattle business, its streets
were crowded from early morning to a late hour in the night,
by a busy throng of merchants, traders and other business
men, besides a host of that floating population which per¬
petually drift from point to point, wherever business centers
— -just as the eagles gather to the carcass. And in the eastern
portion of the village, where were located the stock-yards,
and the Drovers’ Cottage, which was the headquarters of the
cattle men, could have constantly been seen great numbers
of cattle men, and the busiest scenes of activity. Cattle ar¬
riving from the prairie for shipment ; others just being yarded ;
others being weighed ; and a full choir of men busy loading
trains ; empty cars arriving and others heavily loaded depart¬
ing ; while in every direction could be seen the cow-boy, has¬
tening his pony at full speed, to perform some duty. From
the shipping yards to the front of the cottage, a concourse of
footmen could have been seen hurrying to and fro.

Abilene’s cattle commerce amounted to more than three
millions of dollars yearly, and was annually increasing ; aside
from an immense lucrative trade in camp supplies and out¬
fitting, from a pair of huge spurs, or star-spangled top boots
to a thimble-skein wagon.

The farmers of the county had a home demand, at high
cash prices, for every bushel of grain, peck of vegetables,
pound of butter, or dozen eggs that they could possibly pro¬
duce ; and still it was necessary to import many car-loads of
these articles to supply the demand. In every direction over
the county, the farmers could be seen merging from their
“ dugouts ” — mere hovels of dirt built in the bank of some
ravine — into substantial frame houses with other out-door

206

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

improvements of a substantial character ; all betokening the
greatest comfort and prosperity such as their brightest hopes
had not anticipated.

During the shipping season of 1869, the Illinoisan ex¬
erted himself to his utmost to increase the shipment of cattle,
and to otherwise accommodate the trade ; and spent no small
amount of time in securing buyers for cattle, vffio would ship
them to eastern points. Indeed it would be difficult for a
man to exert himself more, or devote nearer all his time, night
and day, to work and business than did he ; often two hour’s
sleep would suffice him ; and scarce a week passed in which
he did not spend one or more nights without sleep ; so deter¬
mined was he to repair his damaged fortunes; and to make
the Abilene enterprise a complete success. For it was the
undertaking of his life, and upon its success or failure
he felt that not only his fortune depended, but his man¬
hood, and the respect of his relatives and friends.

Perhaps there never was a project so bitterly assailed,
misrepresented, and made the scape-goat of so much caloric
misery and misfortune as was that at Abilene. In all this its
projector was made to share, having first conceived the pro¬
ject and put it into execution. Therefore its success was
nearer and dearer to him than life itself, and no more cruelly
withering, and heart-crushing day ever dawned in his history,
than that upon which, by a combination of adverse circum¬
stances, coupled with bad faith, he lost the shipping yards and
cattle business of Abilene.

At the close of the season he invested every dollar that
he could command, in a herd of nine hundred head of cattle,
intending to winter them on hay, and fat them on grass the
following summer. The cattle were put into winter quarters,
along the Smoky Hill river, and its tributaries. For the
means to pay feed bills and other expenses during the winter,
the Illinoisan expected to use the sum due him from the
Railway Company, as per the contract made the previous
spring. Over two thousand cars had been bedded, and loaded

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

207

with cattle at Abilene during the season of 1869, for which
there was due a sum exceeding five thousand dollars.

After his cattle had been placed in winter quarters, he
went to the general offices of the Railway Company in St.
Louis, to effect a settlement, and to get the sum due him for
his services. Entering the office of the Executive Commit¬
tee, he found all the members present except the President,
who was absent in Europe ; and straightway presented his busi¬
ness. To his dismay the Vice President, a burly biped of teu¬
tonic extraction, and the Treasurer, a soulless, conscienceless
money lover, after scratching their pates and looking dubi¬
ously at each other, as if hesitating between acting out their
honest convictions by paying the amount due, or repudiating
the contract, piped out in dishonest tones, that they did not
then know of any contract existing wherein the Railway
Company had agreed to pay for having cattle loaded at Abi¬
lene.

With such men the impulse to keep all they get, is gen¬
erally stronger than that to do as agreed ; no matter how
dearly the party to whom they may be debtor, has earned the
pittance claimed, or how much profit they may have received
from his labors in their behalf. Such at least seemed to be
the case with that Vice President and Treasurer.

After one or two more urgent applications for settlement,
the Illinoisan was finally insolently told, by that model Trea¬
surer, that he had as well leave the office, for they had deci¬
ded not to pay him a cent.

That Shylock may make a very good railway treasurer,
but were we deputed to select an honest man he would stand
as little chance of being chosen as of being struck by light¬
ning, His conduct might have been fun and congenial pas¬
time for him, but it was financial ruin to the Illinoisan. If
that Treasurer’s action was honest or honorable, not to men¬
tion decent, it was not appreciated.

However, the Illinoisan did not desire rupture with the
company, and still hoped to obtain justice, without trouble,

208

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

or having to resort to legal measures. Accordingly he de¬
parted from the railway offices, where they would not listen
to his verbal appeals, and going to his room, wrote and caused
to be printed, a circular letter setting forth the basis, the
equity, and the justice of his claim, and making a fervid ap¬
peal to the railway management to act in good faith with him.
To each one of the directors a copy of that circular letter was
mailed, also one to the President to New York, in care of his
banker, where it would reach him upon his landing from Eu¬
rope, which event was soon expected to occur. During the
time expiring between those interviews, the winter passed
away. Finally, when the Illinoisan learned that the President
had arrived home, he went to St. Louis to see him, for he en¬
tertained the conviction that the President would not permit
so mean an outrage as his associates were disposed to perpe¬
trate. On entering the President’s room, that petite function¬
ary was found alone, apparently meditating upon what a queer
thing it was to be a president of a railway and yet be so small
a man. Arising, with a bland smile, he greeted the Illinoisan
in a friendly manner, inviting him to be seated and make
known his desires. This was done in a plain, moderate man¬
ner, to which the President replied that he remembered that
some arrangement or contract had been made, but owing to
the great lapse of time, and the vast number of other business
matters that had occupied his attention, he could not tell just
what the arrangement was, but that he would give the matter
close investigation and try to do justice in the premises, and : —
just then the immense corporeal proportions of the Teutonic
vice-president hove in view at the door-way. The little presi¬
dent apparently remembering the circular letter he had re¬
ceived at New York, suddenly jumped up on his feet, and
effected to have been terribly insulted forsooth, because the
Illinoisan had dared say in that printed letter, “that if no other
means would be effectual in obtaining a settlement, he would
resort to law, although greatly preferring friendship to antagon¬
ism he could not n <’ \ would not purchase peace at the cost of all

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

209

his rights.” The memory of those unpalatable, straightforward
statements seemed to grate harshly upon the petite President,
and to throw him into paroxysms of rage. He assured the
Illinoisan that he felt himself highly insulted and that he did
not read the circular letter, but cast it with contempt under
the car seat. This assurance was repeated so often that
the Illinoisan felt quite certain that the irate President not
only had read the whole of the letter, but re-read it a time or
two, and then perhaps chewed it into quids and spit them out
through the car window. The interview ended by the Presi¬
dent telling the Illinoisan to “go and sue the Railway Company
as soon as he chose,” in a voice indicating that to sue a cor¬
poration over which he presided with all his might and weight
would be something, no insignificant mortal like a cattle man
would dare have the temerity to do.

At the termination of the interview the Illinoisan re¬
turned to Kansas, where he had spent the most of the previ¬
ous winter in a terrific struggle to keep his nose above the
troubled financial waters which threatened to engulf him.
The constantly accruing expense and feed bills on his herd of
cattle were becoming enormously large and numerous. In
fact the winter had been but a prolongation of the previous
summer’s struggle, only that it daily intensified, until whole
weeks were spent by him without adequate rest or sleep. An
iron man could not have scarce withstood such constant strain
and labor, much less a man of flesh and blood. And it soon
began to tell fearfully on the health of the Illinoisan.

No sooner did it become known that the Railway Com¬
pany had repudiated its contract again with him, than some
of his most unprincipled creditors, men who he had been
the means of raising out of poverty’s lowest ditch, became
uneasy — thinking other people were like themselves, ungrate¬
ful and dishonest — began suit for the amount of their bills.
This occurred in the spring, when every resource had been
exhausted by the Illinoisan to raise means, and the action of
the Railway Company had become known.

210

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

Every one has heard, and many know from sad experi¬
ence, the inevitable fate of the man who is embarrassed, when
some uneasy, malicious creditor begins legal action against
the debtor. It serves only to frighten other creditors, and
then they rush on to him bringing sudden and irretrievable
ruin ; whereas, often had a little patience or decency been
exercised, a brief time would have made all things good, and
much loss saved to the debtor. Such was the case with the
Illinoisan. So soon as he saw that no longer time would be
accorded him in which to shape his own affairs, he surrendered
all his assets to certain creditors, even placing a mortgage
upon his little cottage home, and gave the proceeds thereof
to his creditors. Then with only a single ten dollar note, he
withdrew from business, compelled by adversity and sickness,
induced by overwork and anxiety, causing complete nervous
exhaustion. The entire succeeding summer he was nearer a
dead than a live man. It would tax language to tell the bit¬
ter despair, the intense physical and mental weakness and
anguish, the pain and exhaustion endured that summer, as
day by day dragged its hopeless, cheerless length along, only
to bring a slumberless night. But then it was refreshing to
witness the action of certain quondam friends, who were in
the days of prosperity all smiles, ready to laud and defend
every action. So soon as adversity’s day dawned they were
distant, and as cool as an iceberg, and would meet and pass
their former benefactor with their back-bones as rigid as if
they were cast iron ; and head as elevated as though they
were engaged in surveying the planetery system. It was
condescension, a most gracious thing, if they deigned to nod
their head in cold recognition. And as to showing they had
a spark of true generous manhood, by lending a helping hand,
or speaking a kind word of comfort, or good cheer, they
never thought of such a thing. Nor did they seem to be
conscious that their late conduct had added greatly to the
distress of the situation, and had rendered themselves detestf-
ble. But they were content to daily manifest their actual

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

21 I

flunkyism and manly dignity (?) by bending the supple knee to
some one whom they supposed had money. Then it was so
consoling to see how “ child-like and bland,” not to say
piously serene the countenance of an old family friend could
be, whilst he modestly charged enormous commissions for
trivial services, and how complacently he could pocket the
gross proceeds and retire to his Sucker home, and leave a
wronged and outraged man to starve, and be sold out of
house and home.

Indeed, a man in adversity has an opportunity to see
how many real friends he has, and he will find but little trou¬
ble in distinguishing between the real and the spurious ones,
and he will have no trouble to count the real ones upon his
finger ends, and ten to one he will not need more than the
fingers on one hand, and perchance not more than half of
those.

But a firm consciousness of rectitude of purpose, and an
inward sense of honorable manhood will raise a real man
above any and all adverse circumstances, and lead him to
pity, while he despises the weak and heartless creatures who
snap and snarl beneath his feet. Then nothing will so
speedily and thoroughly develope real manhood, sterling in¬
tegrity, and an intensely keen appreciation of the real, the
good and the true, as downright persistent adversity. True,
at first, human nature being weak, opportunity and induce¬
ment being great, one is sorely tempted to act dishonorably,
if not dishonestly. But genuine integrity and noble man¬
hood will re-assert itself in time to command, to prevent, to
save.

The experience of the year of 1870 will long be remem¬
bered by the Illinoisan as affording a full insight into the hol¬
lowness of human nature, and the frivolous flunkyism of the
majority of mankind. Besides it taught him valuable lessons
that sank deep into his heart, that would perhaps have never
been learned under any other circumstances. Perhaps in life’s
final make-up it will be found that what was endured then has

2 12

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

had much to do in creating a correct estimate of the really
meritorious, and true ; and, if so, will not have been in vain.
Besides had events been different life might have been passed
without having learned the intrinsic value of real true friends,
and the hollow worthlessness of spurious ones. Therefore
his future may be of more worth to himself and humanity than
a dozdn such lives as his would otherwise have been.

Who can tell what an empty blank life might have been
without adversity’s trenchant drilling. Indeed, this book
might not have been written and all the wondrous and im¬
portant events related therein, remained undisclosed, in the
bosom of its author, and many of the faces herein gazed
upon by the reader, would have slept in oblivious graves, and
the story of their life, with their names, never been rescued
from obscurity and oblivion. Who can contemplate without
a shudder of horror, the terrible hiatus that would have oc¬
curred in the literary world had not this book been written
and published.

But a serious survey of the situation would not have
been uninstructive and a retrospective view would not have
been uninteresting. When that young Illinoisan left his
beautiful home, near the capitol of the Sucker State, his heart
was full of ambition to do something that would be of benefit
to his fellow men, as well as to himself, and he chose the
enterprise developed at Abilene as the one in which he could
best work. He was heard to say in a brief talk on the occa¬
sion of the shipment of the first train of cattle from Abilene
that: “Whether this enterprise ultimately proves to be to
our financial weal or woe, as individuals, it has been begun
and will be prosecuted to the end, with the confident hope
that it will be of great benefit to the people of the South¬
west and the Northwest, as well as to the laboring millions
of the Northeast.” Such were the aims and desires that
animated the projector of that enterprise, and it need not be
added that the undertaking was a success, although to the
parties at whose expense it was made such, were repaid with

OF THE WEST

SOUTHWEST.

213

repudiation and financial ruin for their labors, and from a po¬
sition of substantial comfort brought to one of penury.

The Railway Company which reaped the greatest profit
from the enterprise, did perhaps the least towards making it
a success ; but upon the other hand acted throughout in the
most ungrateful and perfidious manner. But the Company
has the benefit of the profit, and it also has the benefit of being
placed upon record as a dishonest repudiator. If the mana¬
gers’ consciences twinge not at the means to which they re¬
sorted in order to acquire what they gained, and at what they
did to crush and ruin the man who gave it to them, then in¬
deed are they callous in soul.

An honest man or company would not have money or
commerce obtained at the expense of honor or at the cost of
ruin to others.

Inasmuch as all peaceful appeals had been made in vain
and every effort to get a settlement with the Railway Com¬
pany had proved ineffectual, there was no other alternative
left for the Illinoisan than to appeal to the Courts of Justice.
Accordingly a suit was begun in the District Court at Junc¬
tion City, which, after tedious continuances, came up for hear¬
ing and a verdict was rendered in favor of him, for every
dollar claimed. But with the usual perverseness of Railway
Corporations, the case was appealed to the Supreme Court,-
where after a moderate delay only, it was again decided in
favor of the Illinoisan.

So after a two year’s struggle the Railway Company
paid the amount originally claimed, and for the lack of which
the Illinoisan had been bankrupted. All the bright promises
and assurances given him in the beginning by the Railway
Executive Committee, through its President, thus terminated
and poverty in abundance was given where emoluments had
been promised.

True he obtained the amount of the judgment less ex¬
penses and attorney’s fees, but it lacked only twelve days of
being two years after it was due ; in which time his business

214

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

had gone to ruin, and losses were entailed upon him of many
thousands of dollars. His shipping yards had passed into
the hands of an inexperienced cattle man, a stranger, for a
trifle, who in the brief space of five months, cleared over
thirteen thousand dollars, and sold out and went home. In¬
deed the amount of the judgment was to the Illinoisan like
giving a loaf of bread to a man already dead from starvation
— a very good thing to receive but entirely too late.

Nevertheless, he did not mourn for his lost fortune. It
was regarded as being hazarded upon a legitimate enterprise
which had been carried to a successful issue ; one that was of
vast, almost incalculable benefit to southern drovers and
ranchmen, to the northwestern cattle feeders and grazers, as
well as to the laborers of the northeast ; in that that it gave
the first a reliable market or outlet for their live stock ; and
to the second it opened up a source from which they could
fill their feed-lots and pastures with unfatted cattle at reason¬
able prices ; and to the latter it gave good wholesome beef at
prices within the reach of the poor, and laboring man. These
being among the fruits or results of the Abilene enterprise,
its projector, although bankrupted, felt quite differently from
what he would had he gambled off at cards, or spent in riot¬
ous living, his fortune. He felt that he had lost his money
in an honorable effort to develop© a worthy legitimate enter¬
prise, one which had as its results, great good to the beef
producing and consuming world, and to that extent he was a
benefactor to his fellow man.

The Abilene enterprise opened up, or was the precursor
to many lucrative avocations, one of which was the business
of buying, late in the fall, the thin unmarketable cattle, and
holding them over winter and fattening them during the fol¬
lowing summer upon the native grasses. This operation was
found to be very profitable and in due time many engaged
in it.

Among the first, if not the first, was Maj. J. S. Smith, of
Springfield, Ill., who was the first northern cattle man or

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

215

buyer that came to Abilene in 1867, and bought cattle for his
Illinois pastures and feed-lots ; and whilst at Abilene was in¬
duced to buy a small lot of scalawag cattle and to put them
into winter quarters in Kansas as an experiment. Every one
was astonished the following spring to see how well the cattle
had wintered. They had actually gained in flesh and gene¬
ral condition during the winter. In a few months after spring
opened and grass was abundant, the small herd was in suffi¬
ciently good condition to go to the eastern market. This
experiment was sufficient to demonstrate the practicability as
well as the profit of wintering Texan cattle in Kansas. The
following fall many engaged in it. This of course created a
demand for hay.

The wild grasses of the valleys of Kansas, when mowed
and properly cured in the months of July and August, makes
hay of equally good quality to the best timothy and clover
hay of the Middle States. Many young men of energy found
lucrative employment in putting up hay to sell to cattle men
desirous of wintering stock.

No eastern meadow has so smooth a surface as the val- '
leys of Western Kansas. In many places the mowing ma¬
chine can be driven for miles without meeting an obstruction
or running over a single rod of rough or uneven ground.
The Major was not slow to see the prospective profit in the
operation of wintering cattle, and to engage in it extensively.
Besides sending to his Illinois farm about five hundred cattle
annually — to depasture his bluegrass fields, and consume his
corn crops, after which but a few months grazing upon tame
grass pastures would fit them for the New York markets — he
has for five successive winters held from one thousand to t.wo
thousand head in Kansas, over winter.

Wintering Texan cattle in Kansas has some peculiar
features worthy perhaps of definite description, more from
the magnitude of the business, the great numbers annually
wintered, rather than from the scientific manner in which it
is done.

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

217

The cattle man who undertakes to winter a herd of cat¬
tle, secures about one ton of hay to each head he desires to
winter. This he provides at his permanent ranch, if he has
any, sometimes cutting the grass, curing, and putting it up in
long ricks, from forty to one hundred feet in length, and from
ten to twenty feet in breadth — on his own account. At other
times he secures his hay by contracting with hay-making
parties, or buys it of those who have put it up on purpose to
sell it. Often in the latter case he will establish a temporary
ranch in the immediate vicinity of the hay, by improvising
temporary camps, sometimes mere tents, other times rude
“ dug-outs ” in the banks of some ravine, will be constructed
for the comfort and convenience of the men.

A large adjacent tract of land, embracing many tnou-
sands of acres, will be “ fire-guarded,” in order to secure a
winter range from the ravages of prairie fires, so common,
and often so destructive in prairie countries. To guard
against such contingencies two or more plow furrows, about
four rods apart, are run around the tract of land desired to be
“fire-guarded,” and then upon some quiet, breezeless even¬
ing, the intervening strip is set fire and closely watched until
it is consumed. Thus it will be seen that an impassable bar¬
rier would be created between the unburned grass within the
encircled tract, and that upon the outside of the “fire¬
guard.”

Unless the “fire-guard” is perfect, and of ample width
it is worthless as a protection against the great fires, fanned
and driven by high winds, which invariably sweep over large
prairie countries.

Sometimes the fire-guard is made during the summer
when the grasses are green and inflamable, by mowing two
swaths a few rods apart, instead of plowing, and after the
mown grass has lain in the hot sun a few days it will burn
without igniting the adjoining standing grass. Then when
lrost has come and the prairie grass is deadened, the inter¬
vening strip of grass between the two burned swaths is

2 1 8

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

burned off much in the same manner as in the case of the
plow furrows.

It is customary with cautious operators to burn circum¬
scribed fire-guards around their ricks of hay and camp, as a
precaution against accidents. So long as there is no snow,
and the weather is fine, the cattle will get ample food on the
range upon which they are allowed to graze in the day time,
but are usually corralled, or rounded up near the camp at
night much in the same fashion as in summer herding. But
when stormy weather occurs, or there is much snow or ice
upon the ground, the cattle are held near camp, and hay
given them to eat. One or two yokes of oxen attached to
a wagon upon which is a rude hay rack or frame, usually con¬
stitutes a feeder’s outfit, upon which the hay is loaded, and
then scattered off in a circle upon the ground, to be eagerly
devoured by the hungry Texans.

Hay made from wild grass, such as is found in the val¬
leys of central and western Kansas in great abundance, is
very good and contains a great amount of nutriment. Texan
cattle eat it with avidity and without any trouble learning
them to take hold of it. It will keep in good heart and flesh
any Texan bovine that can get enough of it, and will in many
cases' increase their weight and condition during the winter.

The experienced cattle man usually chooses or prefers a
wintering situation which has good running water, with con¬
siderable timber and underbrush ; or one that has near the
location of the hay, a tract of rough broken country in the
gulches, and behind the hills of which the cattle can find
shelter from the piercing winds and driving storms to which
western Kansas, in common with other prairie countries, is
subject.

Many cattle men prefer to winter in eastern Kansas,
where they turn their herds upon fields of cornstalks from
which the corn has been previously gathered, and in February
and March give them a few bushels of corn to strengthen
them up so they will take the new grasses and improve

MAJOR JAY S. SMITH OF SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS.

220

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

rapidly. Whilst in extreme western Kansas many herds are
put through the- winter with little or no other feed than the
Buffalo grass, which, cured up during the previous summer,
contains a great amount Oi nutriment. So long as the cattle
can get a sufficient' amount of the dry Buffalo grass they will
thrive finely. Many thousands are wintered in that manner
annually. But it is liable to serious objection as a method of
wintering, inasmuch as when the snow or sleet falls deep, as
it sometimes does, the cattle are compelled to fast longer than
is profitable to the owner, or consistent with the laws of life,
and the poor brutes starve to death or stray away in quest of
food. When the cattle are wintered upon the range it is cus¬
tomary to place them in some suitable district and then herd
or outride the country daily, turning back any that may be
found going beyond the prescribed limits. In all styles of
wintering, the inevitable and necessary cow-ponies are used,
which in addition to the grass or hay they get whilst picketed
out are fed corn, oats, or other grain. This is done to give
them strength requisite for riding service, and to enable them
to withstand the rigors of the climate, for the Texan cow
pony cannot withstand the cold of northern winters hardly so
well as Texan cattle, besides he is daily ridden more or less.

But we have digressed from the personal sketch of Major
Smith. He was not only the first, but a persistent winterer
of cattle until within the last year or two ; since which he has
withdrawn from the business altogether, except upon his
Illinois farms, where, in the fall of 1873, he sent near six
hundred head of smooth Texan cattle, besides over one
thousand head which he -'laced in the stables of a Still-house
near Springfield, Ill.

The manner of fattening cattle at a still-house is one
differing altogether from all other methods of feeding in the
northwest. Each particular bullock is tied up by a chain
around the neck, in a separate stall, the front of which is a
manger or platform for hay. A box to receive the allowance
of swill is also provided and placed where the bullock can

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

221

reach it easily ; into which the slop is conducted by pipes,
running from an immense tank or cooler, which is kept con¬
stantly full of slop, fresh from the still-house, which stands at
some distance from the cattle stables. Behind the stall is a
trench or gutter provided to receive all the filth and offal from
the cattle, and is daily cleaned out. The slop is the refuse
arising from distilling or manufacturing grain into liquors, and
would, without something to eat it, become an entire loss.
The stalls are arranged in long rows and the platform in front
serves to place hay on daily to be consumed by the stalled
ox, which, by the economy of his nature must have some
rough coarse food, or else he would soon lose his appetite
after becoming gorged upon rich concentrated food.

Cattle are usually still-fed for from six months to two
hundred days, and in that time become very fat, and are
considered as good beef as if fatted in any other manner.

Being long tied up, they become clumsy and almost lose
the use of their limbs. So it is common to let them out in an
enclosure once or twice during the two or three weeks pre¬
vious to shipping them to market, and let them run about and
recover the proper use of themselves. It is amusing then to
see the dumb brute, rejoiced at regaining his liberty, and to
get once more into the sunshine. He attempts to kick up
his heels, which usually results in falling headlong on his nose ;
then he will look foolish, and walk about the yard carefully
but awkwardly, until he regains self confidence, when he will
spurt off at some tangent only to be again hopelessly discom¬
fited by tumbling down.

Little trouble is experienced in getting every bullocK to
learn to eat the slop, and they usually get very fat. Inasmuch
as they become mature before grass fatted cattle can be had,
and at a time when the supply of corn-fed cattle is almost
exhausted, they invariably command good prices and generally
make large profits to the feeder.

It is the cheapest way to fatten cattle on feed during the
winter, from the fact that the slop would be a waste if stock

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

223

was not provided. This the still operator does not care, or
have time to do. Hence he sells the slop at low figures, say
from three to eight cents per diem, per bullock, which is much
cheaper than the animal could be fed on corn.

In no one year perhaps were there so many cattle put upon
still-feed as that of 1873, and perhaps never before were the
prospects so encouraging for handsome profits. No one dis-
terned this state of probabilities earlier than did Major Smith
and straightway he made needful arrangements to put one
thousand head, bought at low prices, upon slops in Central
Illinois. The Major is a Kentuckian by birth, although at a
very early period he removed with hi's father .0 Illinois, in
which State he was reared and educated. However, he fre¬
quently went to his native, and other Southern States, to
which he has taken many Illinois and Missouri raised mules
to market. When the war broke out he was South, with a
drove of mules which he, unfortunately, sold on credit. Soon
after returning home he went into the military service, with
the expectation and understanding that nis regiment would
be detailed to duty on the Western Plains, which, proving to
be incorrect, the Major resigned his commission. He then
started a number of mule teams across the. plains, to Cali¬
fornia, taking out from the Missouri river full loads of corn,
which he freighted to various Stage Stations along the over¬
land mail route. Then went over the mountains into Cali¬
fornia ; where, after wintering and recruiting his animals, he
made sale of them. After spending a few months looking at
the various sections of the Pacific slope, he again returned to
his Illinois home, which he had purchased years before, and
which lies west of Springfield, at Bates’ Station.

Directly after returning from California, he was induced
to go to Abilene, and look over the prospect for business
operations there ; with what results has already been stated.
The Major is a quiet, affable, dignified gentleman ; a man of
few words and little noise ; one who makes but few
business transactions during the year, but every one is made

224

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

upon the strictest business basis ; a man of almost un¬
erring judgment, and in all his affairs a high sense of honor
and manhood is always manifested ; one who has many
friends, all of whom rightly repose the greatest confidence in
his business integrity and abilities.

CHAPTER XII.

THE YEARS OF 1870 AND 1 87 1 - WINTERING CATTLE ON THE

RANGE - OPENING A CATTLE DEPOT AT NEWTON, KANSAS -

ABOLISHING CATTLE TRADE AT ABILENE - WHO DID IT AND

THE EFFECT THEREOF - THE EDITOR AND STATE SENATOR

- HIS DUPLICITY AND DOWNFALL - YE LOCAL EDITOR - OPEN¬
ING A CATTLE TRADE AT WICHITA - DURHAM STOCK - AN¬
DREW WILSON - “ROUGHING THROUGH.”

The year of 1870 witnessed a drive of fully three hundred
thousand head of cattle from Texas to Western Kansas.
From all points North the buyers came flocking to Abilene.

As if to help out and complete the climax of success,
all the railroad companies east of the Mississippi River en¬
gaged in a fierce war of competition for the carrying of live
stock freights. The price of freight per car from Chicago to
Buffalo, Albany and New York was but a trifle, sometimes
as low as one dollar only per car. Indeed it is alleged that in
several instances whole trains of cattle were carried from Chi¬
cago to New York for nothing. Rather than miss doing the
business, they would pay the shipper something as an induce¬
ment, to permit his stock to be shipped free of charge. Of
course this state of affairs had the effect to put up prices of
cattle at Chicago, and correspondingly at other Western
points. It was practically bringing ordinary New York
prices to Chicago, and better than Chicago prices to Abilene.
Hence it was not uncommon for a drover to realize a profit of
fifteen to twenty-five dollars per head on his herd. The
greatest possible activity prevailed, and there was a multitude
of live stock operators in the field. Heavy train loads of
cattle were shipped daily, mostly going direct to Chicago.

226

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

No drover whose stock was good for anything, had any
trouble to find a buyer at good prices, and the season closed
with the most satisfactory results to all interested. Many
“through” or fresh driven herds sold at thirty to forty dol¬
lars per head, and from fifty to sixty dollars were realized for
wintered herds, of which there were quite a large number.
The season was dry, the grass was rich, and the cattle be¬
came very fat.

The following year, (that of 1871) the largest drive oc¬
curred ever known in the history of the trade. Fully six hun¬
dred thousand head of cattle arrived in Western Kansas. In¬
deed for miles North, South and West of Abilene, you could
scarce be out of sight of a herd, and when upon a command¬
ing hillock, overlooking any considerable amount of territory,
often thirty, forty, or fifty thousand head of cattle could be
seen at one view, grazing, herding and driving about like
large columns of human beings.

But the season was a rainy, stormy one, and the cattle
stampeded badly, besides the grass was coarse, washy and
spongy, and would not make tallow. Again, the Railroads
had adjusted their differences, or exhausted their belligerent
proclivities, and had agreed upon a high freight tariff on live
stock from Chicago east. There seemed to be an entire
change of feeling in regard to cattle ; a complete reverse of
those existing during the previous year. There seemed to
be but comparatively few buyers. The cattle daily grew
poorer in flesh instead of fatter. So when any were put upon
eastern markets, they brought low prices and weighed very
light, thus discouraging farther, shipments. A great number
of the herds were held until fall, hoping the later markets
would be better, but when fall came there was but little bet¬
ter demand. Multiplied thousands were sent forward. In
consequence of the number and poor condition of the cattle,
the markets were over supplied and many shippers met dis¬
aster, and not a few financial ruin. Finally shipping had to
be entirely abandoned, and other sources of disposal looked up.

Of THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

227

It has been estimated that fully three hundred thousand
head of cattle were put into winter quarters during the fall
,of 1871, mostly on the drover’s own account. Of course
there could not be found a sufficient amount of hay for so
many cattle, and most of them were driven west on to the
plains, where abounded plenty of buffalo grass. In regions
where the tall blue stem grass covered the ground, the fire
had swept over and left nothing to sustain animal life. The
cattle had been held in most instances upon the coarse, dry,
unnutritious grasses, hoping to find a purchaser, until they
had become poor in flesh and weak from sheer starvation.
Finally, when the last hope of selling had expired, or passed,
they were put upon the Buffalo grass regions, and when suit¬
able locations unoccupied were found, put thereon into winter
quarters.

The buffalo grass is so short that prairie fires make but
slow progress consuming it, but are easily extinguished.
Before the herds had scarce arrived at their destined winter¬
ing ranges, a great rain storm set in and a keen cold wind
sprung up at a brisk rate from the northwest, freezing the
water into ice soon after reaching the ground. The whole
surface of the earth had become thus encased to the thickness
of two or three inches, covering and freezing the short buffalo
grass up solid with sheets of ice. Then the furious gale of
piercing wind continued, accompanied with sleet and snow,
and lasted for three days and nights. Many men and horses
froze to death ; and as for the cattle, they perished by the
thousand, or it might be truly said, tens of thousands. It
was impossible to hold them in any given bounds. They
were driven before the storm, or, in cattle man’s parlance,
“ drifted ” with the gale. Wherever the poor brutes stopped
to rest, and laid down, many were found frozen stark stiff,
and dead ; often in just the position that they had taken
when they first laid down. It was wholesale death to the
stock, and widespread ruin to the owners. Many drovers
lost more than their all ; others, who previously re-

228

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

garded themselves as being worth seventy-five to one hundred
thousand dollars, found themselves suddenly made bankrupt.
It was a disaster amounting in the aggregate to millions of
dollars. Perhaps one-third to one-half of the dead animals
were skinned, after the storm abated and the weather mod¬
erated, the balance were permitted to rot unmolested, save
by the hungry wolf or wild varmint. At one railway station
twenty thousand, at another thirty-five thousand, at another
near fifty thousand hides were collected and shipped east.
A single firm placed upon the Republican river over thirty-
nine hundred head of cattle, and in the following spring could
muster only one hundred and ten head of living cattle.
Numerous other instances of equally disastrous loss could
be cited.

The winter of 1871 will long be remembered by many
drovers as one in which they met reverse, loss and financial
ruin. It has been estimated that fully two hundred and fifty
thousand cattle, and many hundred cow ponies perished. It
gave a great check to the business of wintering on the range,
or for that matter, upon hay, for the feeders lost heavily also.

In the spring of 1871 the Atchison, Topeka and Santa
Fe Railroad Company completed their line as far west as the
sixth principal meridian. At a point on the cattle trail sixty-
five miles south of Abilene, was located the town of Newton.
Early in the spring the Railroad Company, through its gen¬
eral manager, made arrangements with a cattle man, living
near Topeka, Kansas, to erect and run a good stock yard,
near Newton, and establish a shipping depot. He in turn
employed the Illinoisan to do the work for him, agreeing to
give him the earnings of the yards for his services, there
being other considerations in the trade with the Railroad
Company, of which the Topeka cattle man was to have the
benefit. In pursuance of this agreement the Illinoisan set
about stopping the incoming cattle herds near the new town
of Newton, and succeeded in locating more than one hundred
thousand head. After about three month’s work a fine ship-

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

229

ping yard was completed. When about one hundred and
fifty cars had been loaded, and it was probable a good fall’s
business would be done, the Topeka cattle man began to de¬
vise means to break up the arrangement with the Illinoisan,
and possess himself of the shipping yards. He was not long
in finding a man who was willing to be a pliant instrument in
his hands to accomplish his dishonorable scheme, being too
cowardly himself to face the job. By securing the co-opera¬
tion of the general manager of the railroad by false repre¬
sentation, they accomplished their dishonorable purposes. An
amount of deceit, lying, and mean, underhand collusion was
resorted to, to accomplish this feat of repudiation and bad
faith, that was anything but creditable to the parties engaged
in it. Indeed the whole affair was one beneath the dignity of
decent, honorable men, and one that would have been least
and last expected of the parties engaged in it.

A moderate business only was done at Newton, which
gained a National reputation for its disorder and blood-shed.
As many as eleven persons were shot down on a single even¬
ing and many graves were filled with subjects who had “died
with their boots on.”

The year of 1871 was the last one in which a cattle bu¬
siness was done at Abilene. The trade was driven away by the
schemes and concerted actions of a trio of office seekers.
Just how this was done or brought about will require a retro¬
spect to the year 1868, in which Abilene was visited by a
brace of town-site seekers, forerunners of a band of minister¬
ing angels who came from the far off land of Mendota, Illi¬
nois. Finding the proprietors of Abilene in a selling humor,
they were not long in deciding to purchase, and in closing a
contract for the entire town site.

Soon after this was accomplished they desired to estab¬
lish a weekly newspaper. After casting about for a suitable
person to publish a journal, not finding one in Illinois, they
sent to northern Ohio and procured a biped of the genus edi¬
tor; although but a feeble and doubtful specimen. Soon

230

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

after the necessary contributions were made to defray the ex¬
pense of shipping the editor and his press to Abilene, he
arrived ; then the villagers were as proud and put on as vain
airs over the new acquisition, as they did when the Railway
Company whitewashed the “ample depot accommodations.”
The editorial oracle had been duly installed in his new quar¬
ters, but a brief space of time before he affiliated with cer¬
tain county officers, and they soon formed a ring or clique,
which with consummate presumption undertook to manipulate
all public matters, even assuming to dictate who should, and
who should not have public offices, or in any manner have ought
to say about matters of a public nature. Any one who dared
act, or aspire, without first consulting them, would be de¬
nounced, maligned and slandered in a malicious manner.
The sacredness of one’s family circle would not be regarded
or respected, but inuendoes and dark hints of a base nature,
always wholly untrue, would be manufactured and published
in the newspaper, or otherwise industriously circulated.

If any person was thought to be, or probably would be
in the future, in their way, or was likely to indulge a desire
to hold an office no matter how humble, who did not bow to
them or acknowledge their assumed authority, he was as¬
sailed in the most malignant manner. A.nd if the people
chose, as they occasionally did, to elect such one, he was the
object of their special malevolence, and no matter what he
did, whether good or bad, he was weekly denounced, mis¬
represented, and slandered in unmeasured terms, and in the
most vindictive spirit. This trio were as unscrupulous about
the means by which they made money, as they were about act¬
ing in an indecent manner. They thought they could black¬
mail the cattle business on a large scale, as they had already
done on a comparatively small one. Accordingly they hit
upon the plan of publishing a notification, signed by them¬
selves, to the drovers not to come back to Abilene, as they
would not be tolerated in the county. They had a double
purpose to serve by this ; one of which was to cater to cer-

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

231

tain farmers who had suffered small grievances from the
presence of the cattle trade, and thus secure political
strength ; the second object was to place themselves in open
hostility to the cattle trade, expecting the following spring to
be bought off. But the drovers took them at their words,
and turned their herds to other points farther west, on the
line of the Kansas Pacific Railway, or stopped at some elig¬
ible point on the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad.

But few months elapsed in the following spring before the
suicidal effect of the step taken by the politicians was pain¬
fully visible in Abilene. Four-fifths of her business houses
became vacant, rents fell to a trifle, many of the leading ho¬
tels and business houses were either closed, or taken down
and moved to other points. Property became unsalable.
The luxuriant sunflower sprang up thick and flourished in the
main streets, while the inhabitants, such as could not get
away, passed their time sadly contemplating their ruin.
Curses both loud and deep were freely bestowed on the
political ling. The whole village assumed a desolate, for¬
saken and deserted appearance. The remaining inhabitants
betook themselves to sueing each other, with a vigor equalled
only by the famous Kilkenny cats. Some of the best citizens
became entirely bankrupt from the sudden stagnation of trade,
while others, with cadaverous cheek and weird eye, watched
any ominous ripple in the sunflower, to see if perchance, a
homesteader was making his entrance into the dead village,
bringing farm products which could only be bartered off at
very low prices if sold at all. It would be difficult to describe
the revolution, — the waking up to a realizing sense of where
their former great prosperity had come from — that occurred
in the public mind. During the summer of 1872 petitions
were freely circulated and numerously signed, praying invit¬
ing, begging the cattle men to return with their herds, but
alas ! it was too late. The trade had been turned to Western
points, which were only too glad to profit by Abilene’s suicidal
folly. The editor busied himself with making excuses for the

232

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

decline of Abilene’s business and pretending that the cattle
trade was of no benefit. He was an adept at making preten¬
sions as well as insinuations. There was nothing so sacred
or profane that he would halt or shrink from assuming or pre¬
tending to be, if it but promised him future political prefer¬
ment.

Every secret society that would receive him .upon any
terms, he joined and sought to place himself at the head
thereof. In fact there was nothing he would hesitate to pros¬
titute to his own selfish purposes — that of aiding himself to
get an office. It was his thought by day and his dreams by
night. The rule by which all his acts were squared. The
overshadowing, all prevailing ambition of his being. No
stone was left unturned or unplaced that would, no matter
how remotely, aid him to obtain an office. As to talent, or
even average ability, he had little or none. Low cunning,
shrewd wire-pulling, and cheeky presumption, coupled with
loathsome flunkyism, and vindictive, unscrupulous hatred of
all whom he could not manipulate, constituted his make up
and capital. A closer inspection of the personal appearances
of the editor, caused the gravest discussion and doubts in the
minds of the villagers, whether he was a real human, or only
an extremely well developed specimen of the ape family.
The disposition and degree of manhood, or rather lack ot
manhood, that he soon developed, fixed the conviction that
if at some time in the distant future, some enterprising phre¬
nological Darwin should chance to exhume his cranium, it
would be regarded as a rare specimen and as conclusive proot
of the soundness of the “ Darwinian Theory,” an unde¬
niable connecting link between the animal and human race.
However, as the cranial formation would show but little brains
before the ears, and still less above the eyes, but an enormous
development behind the ears, where the bump of self¬
esteem and ambitious proclivities to seek office are supposed
to be located ; it would doubtless be classed as of doubtful
origin or classification and labeled “ A what is it.” He

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

233

spent many years in Ohio, unsuc¬
cessfully intriguing, planing and
scheming to obtain office — a kind
of standing candidate. After prac¬
tising diligently, his well learned
tactics in Kansas for three or more
years, he came forward for the office
of State Senator from his district.
On the meeting of the nominating
convention he found that he was in
the minority, but not to be daunted
YE EDITOR. or defeated in his predetermina¬

tion to serve and represent the people, whether they desired
him or not, he, aided by the political clique or cabal, set about
influencing the delegates by promises of future promotion or by
threats of vengeance and political ostracism. By such means
in connection with his misrepresentations and falsehoods con¬
cerning his opponents, he succeeded in securing the nomina¬
tion by a bare majority. He freely used whisky and other
unfair and indecent means to secure votes. His majority was
near fifteen hundred less than that of his ticket. A Presi¬
dential campaign only saved him from utter defeat. Soon
after his election he became suddenly interested in a little
town site, laid out near a water mill, built by a little Dutch¬
man who had just previously held the office of County Trea¬
surer.

It is surprising how, after holding the office of County
Treasurer for one or two terms in Kansas, even a pauper can
build expensive mills or palatial residences. But the public
were at a great loss to understand of what earthly use a
State Senator would be to the owner of a water mill.

But soon after he took his seat in the Legislature, he
quietly introduced a bill, (No. 151) which was for an act, the
provisions of which would have practically and completely
placed the entire milling privileges of the river and county in
the hands of the little Dutch miller, thus creating an oppres-

234

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

THE SENATOR SELLS OUT.

sive monopoly. This measure was quietly passed through

the Senate, the Senator making a flaming speech in its behalf
then tried to prevent his constituents from getting hold ol it
but without success. The leading citizens of Abilene sent
one of their number to the Capitol to look after the myster¬
ious Senate bill, No, .51. Before it had passed the House
and become a law, the delegate extraordinary rom 1
arrived, and lost no time in privately showing the members of
the House the infamous intent of the measure, and they made
short work of it. Thus the Senator's nice little scheme not
only failed, but was ventilated and exposed to the eyes and
understanding of his constituent. A more disgusted exas-
perated and enraged people are not often seen All over
the county public meetings were held, the Senator denounced

and called upon to resign. .1 t

When the Senator found his nice laid plans to sell o

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

235

the farmers’ interests had miscarried, his anger and furious
passions knew no bounds. Upon returning to his home
at Abilene he was publicly hooted and hissed, by a host of
boys, yelling milldam in his ears. He was demoniacal in his
rage, and frantic in his wrath. He denounced everybody
connected with his exposure and humiliating downfall, espec¬
ially the delegate sent down from Abilene, was the victim of
his special vindictive malice. But the people had got their
eyes thoroughly opened, and understood the animus of his
vindictive malicious charges, and the object of their publica¬
tion. A few of Abilene’s leading business men estab¬
lished another paper which fast supplanted the Senator’s.
The community loathed him as a traitor, and corrupt dis¬
honest legislator. The following fall the people of Dickinson
county elected Dr. J. M. Hodge to the House, greatly to the
disgust of the Senator ; the very man whom he had villified
so monstrously. This they did because the Doctor was a
good able man ; the one most capable of watching the Sena¬
tor and protecting the peoples’ interest from the Senator’s
dishonest schemes ; and for the additional purpose of rebuk¬
ing the Senator in unmistakable terms. Finally the Senator
sold out his paper and home and left the district in disgust,
but entirely unlamented. The tedious notice of the Senator
has been somewhat prolonged
that the reader could see what an
unprincipled hypocritic scalawag
can get into office in Kansas, and
how he will try to enrich himself
at the expense of his constituents;
and how, in time, he meets his
merited downfall. This great
ex-editor and ex-Senator had a
soft-brained son, out of which he
tried to make a local editor, but
the boy’s mental imbecility, in
YE LOCAL editor.” connection with his inordinate

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

236 ,

P o^|aZt

a Lai editor, but he became a profound success as a
whisky guzzler^ rf ^ ^ Atchison, Topeka &

Santo Fe Railroad was extended west from Newton, up
fhr Arkansas River Valley; also by a branch road m a
southerly direction to Wichita, a thriving frontier town
of near two thousand inhabitants, located on the “do
of the Arkansas river. It is favorably situated forthe catt e
trade, and when the branch railroad was nearly ^compl* ed
it many of the citizens became anxious to have the cattl
trade centered there. Accordingly a well kno»n Texan dr ^
ver who had remained over winter in the county, and the I

r:Pnon“ gTairK wS, » ^

head of cattle, were shipped. Indeed there are few towns

f tl~ P Railway was done from a point west of Fort
of the K. r. Kanway wa. Abilene- a point

withLir razing —ding Abi.en,

Indeed°time and experience has proven .hat no other such
nnint as Abilene for the accommodation of a larg
has or can be found. The folly of permitting, or “ding .

EE'==

five thousand cars of freight, worth near a quarter of a mil-

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

23 7

lion of dollars, Desides placing it at a serious disadvantage
compared with what it once had, and might have maintained
in the western cattle trade by an upright, judicious, honorable
line of conduct and manner of dealing.

It is the purpose, or intended scope of this work, to give
due notice and attention to every prominent cattle interest in
the West, and not to be specially devoted to what is often
termed the “ long-horned,” or Texan cattle interests, which
although of very great magnitude, both in numbers and value,
is by no means the only valuable or large cattle interest in the
West.

The Durham or “short-horned” cattle raised and fed so
extensively and profitably throughout the Northwest and
West, are in almost every respect more valuable and profit-
table stock to breed and handle than any other throughout
the entire West. The Durham blood is sought by breeders,
and of late years, shrewd, enterprising Texan ranchmen have
been sending young graded Durham bulls to their ranches,
for the purpose of improving their stocks in blood and qual¬
ity. They plainly see that T exas must improve her cattle in
blood and quality, if she would longer compete successfully
and profitably in the beef markets of the Union. It is be¬
ginning to dawn upon the understanding of the Lone Star
ranchmen, that his only hope, as well as imperative duty to¬
ward himself, lies in improving the blood of his stock even at
the expense of numbers.

While it is a well established fact tnat Texan cattle can
be fatted upon corn, yet it is not so easily or successfully done
as with the Durham, although it is quite as well estab¬
lished that Texan cattle will fatten better upon grass, than
the native or “ short-horn.” Now, inasmuch as corn-fed and
corn-fatted beef invariably brings better prices than the grass-
fatted, it becomes a matter worthy of note to the producer,
to secure such grades of cattle as will make the most valua¬
ble beef. It is also an item worthy of consideration to the
ranchman, to breed that class or grade of cattle, which the

338 SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

corn-feeder desires, and for which he will always pay good
prices.

In Colorado it is made by statute, a punishable offense
to permit a Texan, or scrub bull, to run at large, and ranch¬
men are authorized to shoot down such whenever and wher¬
ever they may meet them upon the commons. This law, in
connection with the private enterprise of her ranchmen, is
fast changing the form and appearance of Colorado native
cattle. Indeed, it is astonishing, as well as highly encour¬
aging, to note the marked improvement in color, form, and
weight, arising from a cross of Texan cows with Durham
bulls ; although the latter may be common Grades only. In
many instances the ordinary observer will scarce believe, or
recognize that the cross, or half-breed, has any Texan blood
in it. But little trace of the mother is transmitted to her off¬
spring, which sell upon the eastern markets quite as well as
other Durham grades of equal fatness, bred in the northwest.

There is nothing else which holds out the hope, and
sure promise of so great reward for the investment, to Texan
ranchmen, as the crossing ol their cows with grade Durham
bulls. If the cattle men of that State would import one car
load of yearling bulls, of Durham blood, for each one thou¬
sand head of cattle they export annually ; the lapse of time
would be brief before a marked difference would be seen in
the quality of their stock and the prices realized for Texan
cattle. It is to be hoped that the ranchmen of that State
will speedily realize the importance of improvement in
blood of their herds.

The great number of Texan cows and heifers that have
been placed upon ranches throughout the west, coupled with
the irrepressible desire for improvement, has given consider¬
able impetus to the breeding of thoroughbred and grade
bulls throughout the northwest, and especially in the country
adjacent to Kansas City. The interest in thoroughbred short¬
horn cattle continually increases, as is plainly indicated by
the sales that have occurred during the year of 1873. The

240

SKETCHES DF THE CATTLE TRADE

demand from Colorado and Western Kansas, for superior
bulls, has been, and still is, large.

No one has been more fortunate in establishing a large
fine herd of short-horn cattle at the oportune time, and at
just the right locality than Andrew Wilson of Kingville, Kan¬
sas. Few cattle men comparatively so young, are so widely
known as he. Few have had the experiences, the successes,
the failures, the advances, the reverses, the ups, and the downs
that have fallen to his lot. He is widely known throughout
Kansas, Colorado, and the west, alike for his eccentric char¬
acter, as well as for his fine herd of short-horns, and his ex¬
tensive operations in Texan cattle.

Mr. Wilson is a native of Ohio, but was reared in Cen¬
tral Illinois, where he early imbibed the notions and ideas of
live stock speculations. In war times, when money was
plenty, there was no difficulty in commanding as much money
as was desired, and he sallied forth to Western Missouri, and
essayed to try his hand in live stock operations. Within the
space of three years time, he made a series of ventures, such
as only a bold, almost reckless operator could, or would make,
in which he was remarkably fortunate. Indeed the profits
were so large that money ceased to have value in his estima¬
tion, and he scattered it as freely as he had made it. There
existed no kind of an operation or investment, from a faro
bank, to a purchase of ten thousand head of live stock, that
he hesitated to invest in. Everything was advancing at a
rate commensurate with the abundance and depreciation of the
currency. It was only necsssary to buy and hold, or buy to
receive in the future, and a large profit was sure to be realized.
It only required nerve, and of this he had more than a sup¬
ply ; indeed he was all energy and nerve, and had no caution
or fear of results whatever.

It has been said with truth, that to be successful in the
first speculation is infinitely worse in the long run for a young
man than a severe reverse or heavy loss. Be this as it may,
success was not a blessing, unless one in disguise, to Andrew

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

241

Wilson. However he probably could not appreciate it as
such.

In a series of ventures he had made near one hundred
thousand dollars ; but he was caught with twelve or fifteen
thousand hogs, in the shipping pens, on line of the railroad,
by one of those terrific winter storms occasionally experienced
in the West; wherein men and animals freeze to death in
great numbers. His hogs froze to death by the thousand,
and for weeks the Railroad Company was unable to put
through a train of any description. This unforeseen disaster
swept away his former profits, even more rapidly than they
had been acquired. When the storm abated and the weather
had moderated the frozen animals were disposed of, realizing
but a trifle compared with their cost.

After spending a few months in sour, blue meditations,
in which he took a careful and accurate reckoning of his
whereabouts, condition, and standing in the business world,
and the causes that had most contributed thereto, he re¬
solved to make a change of base, and at the same time leave
behind him the dissolute reckless habits that had contributed
so surely to his downfall and ruin. Accordingly he gathered
his meagre effects, and crossing the Missouri river, set his
face toward the capital of Kansas, near which he has ever
since made his home. Soon after arriving in Kansas he was
most fortunate in obtaining the co-operation of a stock-man
who had credit and means. In a short time he began to make
himself known in the State of his adoption, by his live stock
operations. However, not so much on a line of shipping
and speculation, as in his Missouri operations ; but more on
a basis of legitimate business transactions.

Soon he began to form the neuclus of a herd of thorough¬
bred short-horn cattle. This herd he has steadily increased
by purchase and breeding, until it holds rank as the largest
and best in the State, and has repeatedly taken many first
premiums at Kansas State Fairs, as well as at various other
competitive exhibitions. As a successful breeder of fine

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

243

pure blood cattle, he has shown great skill and good judg¬
ment, and that peculiar fitness or adaptation to the business ;
that keen sense of fine points and good qualities so necessary
to a successful breeder. All admit and accord him merited
success. His herd became so large, that a public sale during
the summer of 1873 was determined upon, and such as could
be spared were sold, also a number of graded animals. The
venture of a public sale of thoroughbred cattle in Kansas had
never before been made, and was regarded extra hazardous
by many, but the result of this one proved, that new as is the
State, and poor as are most of her citizens, yet there is money
to pay for, and appreciation of fine stock. The gross amount
of the two day’s sale, aggregated over $24,000. Single ani¬
mals sold for over one thousand dollars. So great and grow¬
ing is the demand for blooded bulls to place upon cattle
ranches, with Texan and Indian cows, that the business of
producing the full bloods and grades, is becoming very large
and lucrative. In the foremost rank of breeders, Mr. Wilson
has established a reputation and a herd second to none in the
West. After securing a long lease upon one of the largest
and best improved farms, of two thousand acres, in Central
Kansas, he has spent many thousand dollars in erecting
improvements, such as pastures, yards and barns, for the com¬
plete protection and care of his thoroughbred cattle. He
purposes in the future to make his the largest and best herd
of cattle in the West, and to furnish annually large numbers
of grade bulls to ranchmen. This line of business will in the
future be profitable and pleasant, and in pursuit of it a man
can confer great benefits upon humanity, besides securing
lasting fame and fortune.

This branch of business, although large and important,
is but a fraction of Wilson’s interests. From his first en¬
trance into Kansas, he has been interested in large live stock
operations, principally stall-feeding, winterin ~ arazing and
fatting cattle, both native and Texan.

Notwithstanding the great financial embarrassments under

244

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

which he entered the State, he has ever had the good fortune
to meet with men of credit and means, who have stood by
and sustained him in carrying to successful issue, many large
operations; and it matters not what the fate of any one,
who is interested with him may be, so soon as he steps aside,
another comes forward to tender his aid. Thus it has ever
been, so that eaeh year has only witnessed larger and larger
operations, until long since he has been accorded the position
of Kansas’ heaviest feeder. During the winters of 1872 and
1873, he “roughed” about five thousand head of Texan cat¬
tle through the winter, and fatted them the following summer
on grass. Not content with the magnitude of this operation,
the following fall season he formed new business alliances,
and bought seven thousand five hundred head of Texan cat¬
tle at panic prices, and put them into winter quarters near
Topeka. His chosen method of handling Texan cattle is to
winter them principally upon corn-stalk fields, which he buys
in great abundance at low prices, usually from twenty to fifty
cents per acre, after the corn has been gathered therefrom.
Upon these fields the cattle are turned in herds of one to five
hundred head. As soon as one field is depastured, another
is provided, so that the labor of feeding or care for the stock
is small and light. When the approach of spring is near, it
is found to be good practice to feed corn for several weeks,
so as to strengthen up the stock and start it to improving in
flesh and heart, so that when the new grass comes in the
spring the cattle fatten rapidly and without delay or loss from
death, as is often the case when the animal is weak and poor
in flesh. This style, or manner of wintering cattle, is called
“Roughing,” and the feeding of corn in the spring is termed
“ Warming up.” It is one of the most successful and profit¬
able methods of handling Texan cattle. Inasmuch as little
or no loss by death ever occurs, it is economical — especially
when the corn crop of the region has been good and, as a
natural result, the stock fields abundant, good and cheap. It
is claimed, that by roughing through the winter, the cattle can

ANDREW WILSON, OF KINGSVILLE, KAS.

(

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

246

be made fat upon grass at an earlier date, and be ready to go
to an earlier and better market than by any other method of
wintering.

In Central Kansas by far the larger portion of the corn
crops are harvested by husking, or snapping the corn from the
stalk, leaving the immatured ears and nubbins on the stalks
with the fodder. These make good feed for the stock steer
upon which he thrives nicely, so long as he is able to get
sufficient thereof. When spring comes and the natural
grasses become abundant, the cattle are taken from their
winter quarters and, in herds of five hundred or less, are
herded until fat, which requires from two to five months time.
Cows and young cattle get fat much quicker than aged
steers. A great gain both in weight and value is thus
secured.

But many feeders prefer to full feed their cattle with corn,
and make them fat by the opening of spring, when beef is
scarcest, and hence commands the highest prices.

There are few methods of handling cattle Mr. Wilson
has not tried, in all of which he has won the name of being
an able, efficient cattle man, and a good feeder. As a man,
he has few equals in energy and natural resources. Indeed
it has been said that it was impossible to conceive a difficult
situation, or complicated or adverse circumstance, which he
could not surmount, and from which he could not extricate
himself, and always to his own advantage. His business
principle seems to be, that the end justifies the means, hence
he is not over scrupulous as to the means adopted or resorted
to, in order to compass his purposes. He is shrewd, deep,
cunning and unlimited in natural resources and expedients ;
abundantly calculated to take care of himself, and to make his
own way through the world ; is entirely honorable in meet¬
ing and paying his written obligations, but his verbal agree¬
ments are held at his pleasure. Nevertheless he has unlim¬
ited energy, liberal ideas, and comprehensive plans, and is
capable of undertaking and carrying to a successful issue,

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

247

large business transactions, and seldom fails to bend every¬
thing, and everybody to his own purposes, and thereby further
his own schemes. There are in Kansas few better judges of
live stock than he, and none will outstrip him in the race for
fortune and honorable distinction in business.

CHAPTER XIII.

THE DRIVES 1 872-73 - THE GREAT PANIC - EFFECTS ON WEST¬
ERN CATTLE MARKETS - STOCK-MEN’S MASS-MEETING AND

BANQUET - THE NATIONAL LIVE STOCK ASSOCIATION - COL. O.

W. WHEELER - WINTERING CATTLE ON THE RANGE.

Near three hundred and fifty thousand head of cattle ar¬
rived in Western Kansas during the year of 1872 ; scarce
more than one-half as many as were driven during the pre¬
vious year. This fact, alone, is quite suggestive of the wide¬
spread loss and disaster of 1871 ; the year often termed “bad
medicine ” by western drovers. There was great rivalry be¬
tween Wichita and cattle points on the K. P. Railway.
There was a vigorous effort made to draw a portion of the
drovers with their herds to Coffeyville, on the Leavenworth,
Lawrence & Galveston Railway. The cattle season of 1872
was a good one for the drovers, although they did not receive
other than fair paying prices for their stock ; yet, in conse¬
quence of the bountiful corn crop throughout the northwest,
creating an immense demand for cattle for feeding purposes,
the drovers were able to sell out at moderately good prices.
The good results of the season had the effect in 1873 of a
marked increase in the number of cattle driven. At the
opening of the season three different railways competed for
the cattle trade, the K. P., the A., T. & S. Fe, and L., L.
& G. Railways. It was evident, even before the opening ol
the cattle season, that the drive would be very large. The
utmost activity was manifested on the cattle trail by parties
working in the interest of their respective roads or points, all
of which poured out money freely in order to secure cattle
business. How different was this to the conduct of the rail

THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

249

way company the first three years of the existence of the
cattle trade, when it was first being established ; then it re¬
quired both money and labor, coupled with faith and nerve,
to do the task ; to overcome the multitude of obstacles that
successively arose, mountain high, to oppose and almost
overwhelm the enterprise undertaken at Abilene. In the
years of ’72 and ’73 the K. P. Railway Company were will¬
ing to pay numbers of men snug sums of money to use their
influence, and to work in favor of their line, and then pay
handsomely to have the stock loaded upon the cars from
shipping yards built by the railway company at many thou¬
sand dollars cost ; while, in the years of ’68 and ’69, they did
nothing to aid the business. When parties secured the cattle
and loaded them upon the cars from yards built, maintained,
and operated at private expense, the railway company had
only repudiation of its contract to offer as recompense for
services.

In 1873, near four hundred and fifty thousand head of
cattle entered Western Kansas, besides about fifty thousand
which turned off of the trail to the eastward and went to
Coffeyville, making an aggregate of near one-half million
head of cattle. Of this number fully three-fifths were stock
cattle; that is, cows, heifers, yearlings, and steers younger
than four years old. The season was marked as, the first, in
which there was nearly no demand from any source for stock
cattle.

Scarce a single buyer from any of the Territories put in
an appearance, but on the other hand it was reported that they
were supplied with cattle, and that instead of being buyers
they would be for years to come extensive sellers. Thus in¬
stead of relieving the Western Kansas cattle market of its
surplus or excess, they were pressing to the front, shoulder to
shoulder, as competitors in the Eastern markets in which
they had a decided advantage from the fact that the Terri¬
torial cattle had been wintered North, and not being driven
to disturb or prevevt them from fatting. The result of the

250

SKETCHES

THE CATTLE TRADE

situation which developed in 1873, was that such herds as
failed to get into the Indian contracts were held upon the
range, and an attempt was made to fatten them for the fall
market. In order to do this large sums of money had to be
raised, by borrowing of such banks as were disposed to ac¬
commodate the cattle men. Many drovers were in debt in
whole or in part for their herds, while others did not have
means to pay off their surplus men on arriving in Kansas, or
buy necessary camp supplies, Resort was had to borrowing
money instead of selling cattle at such prices as were offered.
This was done to a very large extent. On the first of Sep¬
tember Texan drovers in Kansas were in debt fully $1,500,000.
The greater portion of this amount was due and payable dur¬
ing the month of October.

About the middle of September the great panic of 1873
began in the eastern cities, and by the first of October had
reached the Northwest and West in its full force, paralyzing
every business to a greater or less extent. Perhaps no busi¬
ness in the west suffered so much as the cattle trade. There
was an unprecedented number of cattle awaiting the opening
of the packing season and the general fall markets, and their
owners were as a rule largely in debt to the banks, which
debts matured during the month of October. Owing
to the distressed condition all the banks found themselves
placed in, it was impossible to grant extensions, and there
was no other alternative than to put the cattle upon the mar¬
ket in order to pay the debt for which the live stock was in
many instances pledged. The short corn crop had reduced
the number of buyers fully fifty per cent, as compared with
the previous year, and the panic had the effect of farther re¬
ducing the number of would-be purchasers fully one-half, so
that there were scarce one-fourth the number of buyers for
cattle in the fall of 1873, that there were in that of 1872, whilst
the number of cattle for sale was much larger. In addition
to the foregoing, the season had been rainy and the grass
coarse, soft, and washy, consequently the cattle had stam-

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

peded much and fatted little, so that more than ninety per
cent, of them were unfit to be packed, or to go to eastern
markets. In fact they were only fit to be fed during the win¬
ter and marketed the following year. To a man whose sym¬
pathies ran with cattle men, it was like attending a funeral of
friends daily, to stand upon any of the cattle marts and wit¬
ness the financial slaughter of drovers and shippers constantly
occurring.

Many cattle that were forwarded east, did not sell for
scarce more than freight and charges. A single firm lost
one hundred and eighty thousand dollars in three weeks’
shipments. It was common to hear a shipper say, pointing
to his cattle, that every horn in sight was losing a five dollar
note, or ten dollars per head. Indeed, money was lost as
fast and completely as if a bonfire had been made of it, and
kept burning for forty days. It is estimated that the panic
lost Texan drovers fully two millions of dollars. No such
calamity ever befell the western cattle trade ; it is beyond the
power of the writer to give by pen or word, even a faint de¬
scription of the great calamity, or tell of its wide spread ruin.
Men by the score could be named who were suddenly bank¬
rupted, and it was very rare to meet a cattle drover, trader,
or shipper, who had not lost heavily. Many thousands of
stock cattle, especially cows and rough thin steers, were sold
at from one to one and a quarter cents per pound gross
weight, to be “tanked; ” that is, the hide, horns, and hoofs
taken off, and the balance of the carcass placed in a tank and
rendered, or steamed ; the tallow obtained, the balance was
thrown away. Many thousand were disposed of in this man¬
ner, while by far the greater portion were taken by feeders ;
some of the best herds were taken by the packers. The year
of 1873 was, taken as a whole, one of great disaster to west¬
ern cattle men, and will be long and vividly remembered by
many whose fondest hopes, together with their fortunes, were
dashed to the earth and broken. Of the half million cattle
that came to Kansas during that year, fully two-fifths were

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

pit in winter quarters in Western Kansas, or driven into
Colorado, and of the remainder (perhaps one hundred th^
sand 1 were put on feed in the Northwestern States, and as
many more went direct to market and were slaughtered,
whilst the remainder went to the Indians and to be consumed
in the more northern Territories. T,

One thing may be regarded as effectually settled. That
is no more stock cattle are needed or wanted from Texas in
the Northern States or Territories, and the ^"er he stock
men of Texas recognize this fact and cease depleting their
stocks at home the better for them. We deem it now fuU
time to urge Texan live stock men to stop driving off to
Northern markets other than beef cattle, and whether it s
really best to drive them or allow them to remain upon their
native pastures until fat, and then ship direct to market, ,s a

proposition that will bear discussion. .

P P About the middle of September 1873, amass
live stock men was held, and a banquet given at Kansas
City The purpose of this was to bring the Northern and
Southern cattle men together in social contact and inter¬
course, and if possible to inspire the droopmg -ttk trade
■th o-rpater life and activity, and also to form an Associa
of Live Stock Men. The mass meeting and banquet was
ZcL ;«cess Near two thousand cattle men sat down to
the banret and addresses were deliveredby Gov Woodson,
If Missouri, and other prominent men, representing the var¬
ious sections of the West and Southwest.

Manv amusing incidents occurred, one of which we
late An unshavL, unshorn, roughly-clad cow-boy fresh
trom New Mexico obtained a seat at the Banquet table. .
hacT often heard of the exhilerating effect of fine 1 pure wine.

hfcl'uKhXa ^ bottle of ctompagne saying, “ What’s

he proceeueu lu F _ hesitatino- for a moment,

his throat without stopping- Then hesi

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST

253

remarked: “This hur stuff is too d — d thin; it won’t make
nobody drunk ; I could drink the Gulf of Mexico if it was
like this and not be drunk neither.” Then guzzling the bal¬
ance of the quart he reached for a second bottle, which he
was in the act of uncorking when the effect of the first bottle
seemed to suddenly reach his brain. Hesitating for a mo¬
ment in which his eye was observed to tingle with a newly
aroused wildfire he arose to his feet; then suddenly jumped
about two feet into the air and brought his ponderous fist
down on the table with the force of a trip-hammer, and
screamed in tones near akin to the warhoop of a Comanche:
“ I’m ^ s — n of a b — h from New Mexico, by G — d. I’m just
off of the Chisholm trail — wild and woolly — and I don’t care
a d — n. I can whip any short-horn in America, by G — d.”
All the while jumping up and down like a caged wild demon
— his long uncombed hair hanging a profused mass over his
face whilst his eyes shot forth piercing tiger glances. Had
he had his pistols, death’s cold leaden pillets would have
been distributed promiscuously.

The following evening a meeting was held, and an or¬
ganization was formed, which was named and styled The
Live Stock Men’s National Association. Officers : Presi¬
dent, John T. Alexander, of Alexander, Illinois; Corre¬
sponding Secretary, Joseph G. McCoy, Kansas City, Mis¬
souri ; Treasurer, W. H. Winants, Kansas City, Missouri.

The great panic of 1873 beginning soon after the institut¬
ing of the Association, all efforts to extend the organization
were temporarily suspended. But it is the determined pur¬
pose of interested parties at an early day to push and extend
the organization, until, if possible, every live stock man in
the United States is induced to become a member. All com¬
munications pertaining to the Association should be ad¬
dressed to the Corrresponding Secretary.

It is a fact that every other branch of business or occu¬
pation, (although often not of one-half the magnitude nor
employing a fourth of as many men as the live stock busi-

254

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

ness,) is organized completely, and by such organizations,
aid and protect its members in a thousand ways, besides col¬
lecting statistical and other general information concerning
their special business, as well as protecting their co-laborers
from oppression and outrage at the hands of strong monopo¬
lies, with which they are often individually brought into busi¬
ness relations. It is true that live stock men are, or have
been heretofore, entirely unorganized, and as a result thereof
they are not correctly informed as to the extent or magni¬
tude of the business in which they are engaged ; nor do the
stock-men of one State, as a class, or as a rule, have any
definite knowledge of the number engaged in like business in
any other State or Territory. This might be truthfully said
of most stock-men as to their adjoining 'counties, and often
townships. Nor do they know, or have any good means of
informing themselves, as to the number of live stock, hogs,
cattle, or sheep, that are being prepared for market, or that
are likely to be put upon the market at any given time in the
future. And when they are prepared, or ready to market
their stock, if the nearest and most convenient means of
transportation chooses to ask them exorbitant rates of freight,
they submit, and although they will complain piteously about
the extortion, they do nothing to prevent its repetition. In¬
deed, it has often been said that every stock-man was an
independent sovereignity in and of himself, and preferred to
act for himself alone, free and independently, even if he does
pay dearly for the privilege of so doing. It is idle to ques¬
tion the proposition, that if stock-men would organize they
could have at least a part of the say in fixing rates of freight,
yard charges, feed charges, commissions, and other incidental
expenses to which the business is inevitably subjected. It
would be next to impossible for railroads to effect and main¬
tain combinations which the stock-men could not break.
Corporations, by combination, would not successfully put up
and maintain the price of freight fully thirty-three per cent.,
over rates charged previous years, and that too, when live

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

255

stock is selling at prices ranging from twenty-five to fifty per
cent, below those realized in former years. No such outrage
could, or would be attempted successfully, or tolerated, if live
stock-men would act in concert to obtain that that they desire,
and of a right ought to have ; neither could stock-yard com¬
panies insolently mistreat and abuse live stock, or charge -ex¬
orbitant and outrageous prices for yardage, hay, corn, or for
other services rendered ; they would not dare to do it. But
as matters now stand — the live stock men entirely unorgan¬
ized, each one by himself and for himself only, are subjected
to the arbitrary restrictions and extortionate charges of con¬
scienceless corporations. A stock-man or shipper sees him¬
self wronged, and his stock abused, neglected, and otherwise
mistreated, but feels himself powerless as to remedies, and
usually does nothing but mutter curses, not loud, but deep ;
then pass along, only to have the same outrages repeated as
often as he attempts to go to market.

The only remedy suggested to the mind of the author
for these and many other abuses and grievances, is in organi¬
zation. Then a potent protest that could and would be en¬
forced and respected would issue against offending parties,
and they be compelled to do right and act fairly with their
patrons ; or in the event of their persisting in oppressive
practices such retributive justice could be meted out to them
as would compel a change in their conduct and manner of
doing business ; or the business would be taken entirely from
them.

Again if the stock-men were properly associated together
a statistical bureau would be established for gathering and
disseminating such information as would enable the members
of the association to form correct estimates as to the amount ot
stock in every section of the country, and the probable num¬
ber that would be marketed each month of the year.

It is not difficult for the practical cattle man to see wherein
such information would be of inestimable value in forming
business calculations, and a correct judgment of the probable

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

256

future status of the business and markets. Besides a great
aid to both buyers and sellers would be thus created and a
general business register of the wants or desires of live-stock
men would exist, to which any member might refer at his
pleasure and thus save much time and money which would
otherwise be spent in rambling over the couutry seeking,
without knowing just where to look for that which he desired.
The advantages of organization or association are so numer¬
ous and so great, ,that it is time spent idly to urge them upon
the attention of thinking, discerning live-stock men. But if
they continue to bear without effort to remedy the many evils,
abuses and extortions which have been heaped upon them in
the past, then are they degenerate dung-hills, and unfit to
bear the proud distinction to which as a class they aspire.

But we hope and apprehend the day is not distant when
there will be found organizations of live-stock men in every
State and in many counties ; all of which may be made auxil¬
iary to a general or national association. When that day
does come, live-stock men will be subjected to fewer losses and
be able to conduct their business in an intelligent, systematic
manner just as is every other industry or vocation in the Uni¬
ted States. It is in no sense for the lack of intelligence
among stock-men that effectual organization has not before
been effected, but from a habit of doing and acting in an inde¬
pendent individual capacity. The benefits to accrue from
association are not thought of or realized ; but the day now is
when their numbers, and their interest alike behoove them to
organize for their own mutual benefit, information and
strength.

Some of the most intelligent of the land, both of the
East and the West, are found in the live stock business. Im¬
paired health often drives eastern born and educated men
into the vocation of live stock ; in the outdoor pure air exer¬
cise they find restored health. Men who are familiar with
the amenities of high social life, those who are fitted by nature
and education to adorn the best walks of life, are often found

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

257

in the live stock business in the west ; such a one is Col. O.
W. Wheeler, who, in his native Connecticut home, received
such a business education and training as fitted him for a
commercial life ; but that fell malady of New England — con¬
sumption, soon manifested its unmistakeable presence in his
breast, and he was not long in deciding to test the effects of
a trip by ocean steamer to the Pacific slope. Sorrowfully he
bid an affectionate adieu to the loved home of his childhood,
and to his parents, brothers, and sisters, and boarded a Pa¬
cific mail steamer bound for the Isthmus. This was before
the Panama Railroad was completed, and the passage from
ocean to ocean was made in canoes poled by natives up the
Chagres river to the head thereof, thence on mules to Panama
harbor.

Although that scourge of the tropics, Panama fever, laid
its heavy hand upon his debilitated form, yet he survived it,
and after a passage of thirty-two days found himself upon
the golden sands of California. Arriving in the year 1851,
he was among the comparatively early settlers in that eldo-
rado. The very atmosphere was dense with excitement
about the mines, of which new ones were being daily dis¬
covered, adding their volume to the constantly increasing wave
of excitement. When the Colonel’s health was somewhat
restored, his means being limited, he went to the mines, but
upon a brief trial found that he was not physically able to en¬
dure the heavy labor incident to mining. Accordingly he
returned to Sacramento and engaged in mercantile pursuits,
taking a position as head salesman in a large establishment.
But having a disposition that prompted the desire to be in the
open air, and having naturally a great love for live stock, he
accepted the first good opportunity and went to trading in
cattle. Going a few hundred miles east into the desert on the
emigrant trail, he met an immense concourse of in-coming car¬
avans, consisting of teams and outfits en route overland from
the States. Of course many animals, oxen, horses and mules
were jaded out by their long journey over the plains, and

^58

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

were comparatively valueless to the emigrants, who were only
too glad to part with them for a small consideration either in
cash or recruited animals, for one of which a half dozen jaded
ones could readily be exchanged. The all-absorbing effort
of the emigrant was to get through to the land of golden
promise, and he knew not how soon he would be compelled
to either halt, or leave part of his outfit. This jaded stock
only needed a few weeks rest and recruiting, no other food
was required than the natural grasses of the mountain val¬
leys. This trade, as the reader might readily infer, was very
profitable, and the Colonel made several trips, reaping rich
harvests.

When this trade was over, or done, he outfitted several
teams and went to freighting to the various mining districts ;
but not liking this business he sold out, and meeting an excel¬
lent opportunity he bought out a disgusted merchant, and
soon built up a lucrative trade, and then sold it out at good
advantage. Finally he met with an opportunity to buy a
large flock of sheep which the owners did not know how to
handle to advantage. The Colonel having been reared a
practical farmer, had no difficulty in putting the flock in fine
condition, soon after which he divided the wethers from the
stock sheep, and sold the former to the butcher at twelve dol¬
lars gold per head, and for the stock sheep a little better price
was realized. These sales in addition to the proceeds of the
wool clip, made the transaction highly satisfactory. Being
the most successful in live stock, as well as best pleased with
the business, he decided to go to Los Angelos in Southern
California and bring up a herd of cattle, which he did, and
sold out at a splendid profit on his arrival at Sacramento.
This operation proved so remunerative and congenial that he
was prompted to repeat it, which he did ; but owing to seri¬
ous illness he did not succeed so well, yet he made money.
While in Southern California, two hundred miles south of
San Francisco, he espied a large fine ranch stocked up with
over three thousand head of cattle, besides horses, of which

260

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

the owner had become tired. The Colonel, determined to
buy the whole establishment, which he did without delay or
trouble. But he did not hold the realty more than a year
before receiving a fine offer for it, which he accepted, retain¬
ing the most of his cattle.

About this time he conceived the project of opening a
wholesale meat market in San Francisco, which soon required
the carcasses of forty bullocks daily. This soon exhausted
his herd, but there was no trouble in getting a supply from
others, at such figures as afforded a fine margin. The
wholesale slaughtering and meat market was continued for
two years, when the desire for a more roaming venture took
possession of him ; accordingly, he made a trip by way of
his Connecticut home to the Northwestern States, and pur¬
chased a herd of horses, which were started over the plains.
This was in the year of 1861 and the plains’ Indians were all
on the war-path, and crossing the plains was an undertaking
fraught with great danger ; especially as Mr. Lo was decid¬
edly fond of horses, and was not scrupulous about paying for
them in coin or greenbacks. To prevent capture, or rob¬
bery, if not worse, it was necessary to travel in large trains
or caravans, and maintain by organization, a semi-military
defensive attitude. At the head of this organization, the
Colonel was placed by the unanimous vote of a large number
of emigrants and plains-men. That trip was one of great
peril, and required persistent, eternal vigilance. The experi¬
ence and prudence of the Colonel was equal to the occasion,
and although the train passed through a country swarming
with hostile redskins who were ever on the watch for an op¬
portunity to attack the train unawares, the only mode ot
Indian warfare ; and although the red devils hovered on the
route for days, the entire train, comprising several hundred
wagons and more than a thousand head of loose stock, was
conducted through safely.

After arriving in California his horses were sold at a
moderate profit, but not content to stop or abandon the

THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

26l

drover’s life, the Colonel embarked in driving fat stock from
Lower, or Southern California, to the various mining regions
in the Northern part of the State, and to those of the great
silver regions of Nevada. This very profitable traffic was
continued through summer and winter, through snow and
sunshine, until the spring of 1867, when in consequence of
the extreme scarcity of cattle — a result brought about by a
drought, which had prevailed on the Pacific slope — he deter¬
mined, in company with Messrs. Wilson and Hicks, to go to
Texas and drive a large herd of cattle from there to the min¬
ing regions of the Pacific slope. In pursuance of this deter¬
mination, they visited the Lone Star State early in the year,
and purchased a seiect herd of twenty-four hundred head of
cattle, and over one hundred head of good cow ponies, and
employed fifty-four sturdy men, all of which they armed in
the best manner, with superior rifles. No more complete out¬
fit, or better herd of stock ever left Texas. This herd was
the first to pass through the Indian Nation, and broke the
trail over which the drive of 1867 came. It was a year of
constant rain and flood, and, as if to add to the distress ol the
situation, the Asiatic cholera made its appearance and
swept away many cow boys, and some of the drovers. When
they had arrived in the vicinity of Abilene, a halt for consul¬
tation and for reconoitering the situation was made. The In¬
dians on the plains were extremely hostile, and all on the war
path. After obtaining all the information possible, it was
determined to stop at Abilene and dispose of the herd. To
this course the Colonel objected, and earnestly urged his two
partners to go forward as per the original programme, but he
was overruled. He was no theorist or dreamer desiring to
attempt impossibilities, but having often been exposed to
savage redskins, and being anything but a coward, he did
not fear to go forward with the herd and fight their way, if
need be, through the hostile Indian country,

The fear of Indian depredations influenced his partners
to take the course determined upon. This magnificent herd

262

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

did not get in good flesh during the summer season, neverthe¬
less it was shipped to Chicago and packed upon the owner’s
account, which operation was not profitable. The Colonel’s
plan was to winter the herd, when he found that his partners
would not risk going through to California, but in this he was
again overruled. However when their herd was shipped and
packed he returned to Kansas, and bought on his individual
account, a herd of fifteen hundred head of cattle, which he
wintered in the southeast part of the State, and fatted the
following summer.

Notwitstanding the Missouri mobs, he drove the herd to
Quincy, Illinois, where he placed it upon pasture. This was
about the time of the great excitement about Spanish fever,
and a good opportuuity occurred to buy Texan cattle at
Quincy from panic-stricken shippers, which he was not slow
in improving. Indeed the Colonel bears a well established
reputation as a shrewd, observing operator, whose keen eye
always readily sees quickly an opportunity for a profitable in¬
vestment. Many hundred were sent from the yards to his
pasture and mingled with his wintered herd, then he went to
Abilene and bought and held several thousand choice cattle.
When the excitement subsided and the brisk demand, noted
otherwheres, arose for fat Texan cattle for packing purposes,
he was found right on hand with rousing fine herds, just
ready to reap a harvest of profits. After closing up his sum¬
mer and fall’s operations, he went to Texas where he bought
five thousand head of cattle, to be delivered in Nevada.
When this contract was completed, he returned to Kansas,
and whilst the parties with whom he contracted in Texas
were driving the herds to Nevada, he bought and shipped
about six thousand head upon the Chicago market.

Upon the arrival of one shipment a genius named Milk
took upon himself to inform the Board of Health, that the
Colonel was shipping “ fresh Texan ” cattle. The Board
thought him a fit subject upon whom to try the recently en¬
acted prohibitory legislation ; accordingly, one day, when the

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

263

Colonel had about twelve hundred head upon the market, they
(the Board of Health,) arrested him for having “ Texan cat¬
tle in the State of Illinois.” Before they took the cattle into
possession, the Colonel demanded a bond of indemnity, and
then dug out of his convenient pocket a “certificate, under
seal,” setting forth that the cattle were wintered, and just then
the aforesaid board of health “ saw it” and wilted. The
Superintendent of the yards revived them with sparkling
champagne, over the effervesence of which the “ board ” not
only revived, but waxed liberal, and patting the Colonel on
the back, told him to bring all the cattle he pleased. This
was esteemed an exalted privilege for an American citizen to
enjoy in this free country. But the Colonel is anxious to
meet the man who set that board of health on him ; he would
make it warmly interesting to that fellow, and would show
him a peculiar variety of the “ milk of human kindness ; ” but
it is apprehended that that “ milk ” would not be appreciated.
In all these shipping ventures he was successful ; indeed, his
judgment was as unerring as his fortune was good ; where
others stumbled or fell he cautiously but successfully trod.

In the fall season, at the appointed time, the Colonel
went to the designated point in Nevada and received ; then
disposed of the five thousand head of cattle previously con¬
tracted for in Texas ; the operation was only moderately
profitable. In the year of 1870 he drove from Texas, and
shipped altogether near twelve thousand head of cattle, and
the following year he drove seven thousand head. This was
the year in which occurred the great exodus of kine from
Texas to Kansas, and was followed by the winter of disaster.
The Colonel succeeded in selling all his, but one thousand
head, which with eighty-seven head of cow-ponies he put
into winter quarters ; of the cattle, he lost twenty per cent.,
and every one of the ponies perished.

He then determined in the future to drive less in num¬
bers, but be more careful in selecting good ones ; accordingly
he only put two thousand upon the trail leading northward

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

265

the next year, but they were selected stock. After reaching
Kansas he bought five thousand head, mostly wintered cattle
and held them during the summer. He succeeded in making
one sale of five thousand head to J. B. Hunter & Co., for the
snug sum of $125,000. The remainder of his herds he man¬
aged to dispose of at paying prices. On returning to Texas
the following winter with his cow-ponies, and after looking
over the situation, he concluded that too many cattle were
being driven to be profitable ; accordingly he sold his ponies
and returned to Kansas, where, during the summer of 1873,
he maintained a “ masterly inactivity ” — a mere spectator of
occurring events — but, when a favorable opportunity to make
an investment presented itself, he bought six thousand head
of cattle and one hundred horses.

The great panic beginning soon after, he was able to sell
only about twenty-five hundred head at satisfactory prices,
and put five hundred head on slop feed in Central Illinois ;
then placed three thousand head in winter quarters in Western
Kansas.

The business of wintering cattle in Western Kansas has
attained great proportions, and life in camp, and in winter
quarters, is much like that described under head of ranching
and grazing.

After reading this, and the sketches of other cattle
men, the reader will rightly conclude that the life of the
drover and dealer is one full of change, both in lines and
character of business. Such is the fact, and in this fact —
the perpetual changing of clime, country, scenery, men and
circumstances, coupled with the excitement ever incident to
risk and venture — is to be found the fascination of the life and
business of a drover, the key to the impetus which ever drives
and animates him to greater and greater efforts and larger
and larger risks. So deep and firm does the habit and
incentive to trade and speculation take hold upon its votaries,
that few men after beginning are ever willing to quit the busi¬
ness of stock trading and shipping, or exchange it for any

266

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

other business. If from financial inability, he is compelled to
take up some other vocation, he is ever longing to again try
his fortune in live stock operations. If he succeeds, no mat¬
ter how well at first, it only stimulates him to greater exer¬
tions and greater risks. If he does not succeed it only
serves to make him determined to retrieve his losses in the
same vocation in which he sustained it. Bankruptcy and finan¬
cial ruin is the only means that will put a stop to his opera¬
tions.

These observations are more applicable to shippers’ of
live-stock than to ranchmen, or to that other class of dealers
who conduct their operations altogether in the country and
seldom go to market ; then only with their own production.
This class of operators are not only more safe and successful
but almost invariably accumulate wealth, for they can remain
at home, when the market is not good, and hold their stock
off, or await the coming of a shipper or speculator to whom
they sell, when the prices offered are satisfactory. To this
latter class belongs Colonel Wheeler.

Northwestern Kansas is a superior stock country, and
abounds with fine buffalo grass upon the uplands and blue-
stem, or blue joint grass in the valleys, affording abundant
hay and winter range ; also water, fresh and salt, and timber,
and other shelter exists in abundance. In these regions the
Colonel has chosen his wintering grounds, and when the
herds are once located and become quiet and content, they
are not herded, but out riding the country instead, is practiced.
Substantial dug-outs were constructed for the comfort of his
men, and everything provided to render them as snug and
content as possible under the circumstances. The Colonel’s
employees are. to a man loud in praise of his generous liber¬
ality, and every one of them would fight, and if need be, lay
down their lives for him or his interests.

When the winter is passed the cattle are gathered to¬
gether and put under herd, and camps established ; this is
done to prevent the cattle from straying off or being stolen.

268

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

The frontier of Kansas, like all other frontiers, is sub¬
ject to the depredations of thieving bands of desperadoes, a
lot of out-laws, who cannot live in a country or district where
civil law can be enforced, but hover on the frontier, ever
ready to prey upon the honest frontiersman. These bandits
do not hesitate to run off any number of cattle or ponies that
the negligent herder may permit to come within their reach.

There are many comforts enjoyed in camp life, out on the
great plains in the summer season, not the least among which
is the delightsome breeze which so gently sweeps over the land,
bringing health, vigor, and “the balm of a thousand flowers”
upon its wings. The freedom and abandon which naturally
abounds, coupled with the jovial hilarity inevitable to robust
health, to which may be added the often recurring sharp
appetite for the feasts of game often provided by the skill of
some semi-nimrod herder, all conspire to render camp life upon
the broad plains a joy forever. When any attention whatever is
paid to camp comforts, and the most ordinary sanitary regu¬
lations, sickness is almost unknown, but the opposite — vigor¬
ous health, energy, and a keen appreciation of life with its
ever changing vicisitudes — is realized ; it is true that many
drovers are apparently indifferent to the health and comfort
of the cow-boys in their employ ; not of this class is the
Colonel, the welfare and comfort of his employees are
scrupulously looked after, and as a consequence he receives
in return faithful service, besides the highest esteem border¬
ing on veneration, from his men, of which he employs con¬
stantly a dozen or more.

There arc few men in the western live stock trade more
widely or more favorably known, than is Col. Wheeler. A
puritan in blood, tracing his lineage direct to an honorable
soldier of the war of 1812, whose forefathers were among
the hardy band of Pilgrims that landed upon the historic
Plymouth Rock. His manner of doing business is such as
will bear favorable comparison with the most scrupulous and
exacting. His business principles are of the loftiest order,

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

269

and none more heartily condemns and loathes a low, mean,
or arbitrary act, than he, and none would be farther from per¬
forming a dishonorable deed ; prudent and close, yet bold and
daring, in his business transactions ; punctual in meeting his
engagements ; shrewd and correct in finances ; cordial and
courteous withal dignified but not bigoted in his manner and
intercourse with men. He is the universal favorite of a large
circle which embraces the entire personal of the western live¬
stock trade, besides many honorable gentlemen in other walks
of life. All recognize in him the generous chivalrous gen¬
tleman, whose impulses are ever true and good, and whose
sympathies are ever with the worthy and deserving.

CHAPTER XIV.

DEVELOPMENT OF LIVE STOCK MARTS - THE MOST ELIGIBLE POINT

ON THE MISSOURI RIVER - KANSAS STOCK YARDS - JEROME D.

SMITH - GEO. N. ALTMAN - RECEIVING, YARDING AND FEEDING

LIVE STOCK - COMMISSION MERCHANTS - W. A. ROGERS - J. L.

MITCHENER - GEO. R. BARSE - JOHN SALISBURY - CAPT. W. H.

KINGSBERY - R. NICHOLS - SCALPING - HUNTER, EVANS & CO. -

R. C. WHITE - BOOKKEEPERS AND CASHIERS - SHIPPING CAT¬
TLE - L. M. HUNTER.

As the territory of the United States has been gradually
developed by settlement and cultivation, new live stock
markets have sprang into existence and grown to such mag¬
nitude as their location and the permanence of the necessity
for them warranted. Thus scarce more than fifty years since
the entire live stock product of the nation was produced east
of the Alleghany mountains, and Philadelphia, Baltimore,
New York and Boston were the only live stock marts of note.
But in later years Albany, then Buffalo, and finally Chicago
on the Northern lines, and Pittsburg, Cincinnati and St. Louis
on the Southern and Central lines, became markets of great
importance. It is quite within the memory of many living
stock men, when both St. Louis and Chicago and par¬
ticularly the former were in their infancy as live stock mar¬
kets. St. Louis being located on a river, formerly the only
means of transportation, is the more ancient as a live
stock market. The years are few since both these cities were
not only regarded as extreme frontier markets, but so much
so that it was not thought possible or needful to ever attempt
a permanent live stock mart west of them. But upon the devel¬
opment of the country accelerated by railroads, it became

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

271

apparent that the area of the production of cattie must be
that of the Far West, that tract of country east of the
Rocky Mountains, which our infant minds were taught to re¬
gard as a desert, but which proved upon closer inspection and
experiment to be par excellence a live stock producing
*■'' country.

As the region immediately tributary to the Missouri river
for a distance of near one hundred miles on either side be¬
come developed, it proved to be very superior corn-growing
lands ; not excelled as such by famous Central Illinois. Upon
the establishment and recognition of this fact, the area in
which cattle and hogs could be profitably fatted on corn, be¬
came greatly extended, and the business of raising cattle for
the feeder correspondingly stimulated, but pushed still farther
westward. And so the business of breeding and rearing of
live-stock, especially sheep and cattle, has extended to the
base of the Rocky Mountains ; and after occupying its parks
and valleys with live-stock ranches, turns back over the plains
• to occupy every available location for a distance of five hund¬
red miles in breadth, and more than two thousand miles in
length from north to south ; covering the vast plains in due
time, with bleating flocks and lowing herds. From the na¬
ture of the country and its climate and seasons, the positions
now fast shaping, will of necessity be permanent. The corn
producing belt cannot be extended farther west, not at least
sufficiently profitable to ever become an extensive competitor
to exclusive live-stock production. The great plains are fast
becoming peopled with hardy herdsmen, whose flocks and
herds will soon cover the whole of the rainless belt. In
the very nature of things and in obedience to the same com¬
mercial law or necessity that impelled the building of live¬
stock marts at St. Louis and Chicago there must be a
mart, a point of common center, of sale and interchange
somewhere in the valley of the Missouri.

This self-evident fact being admitted, the question natu¬
rally presents itself, what point on the Missouri river is the

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

272

best one ? and as naturally answers itself, the one that is most
eligibly located, and that furnishes the best facilities for doing
the business. The point that has the most tributary lines of
supply, as well as lines of outlet ; the point which concen¬
trates the greatest number of buyers and sellers. It should
be the one — where a number of points are competing for the
same branch of commerce — that makes the greatest efforts to
establish the necessary facilities and financial accommodations,
besides such establishments as manufacture live stock into
commercial commodities, such as packing, and rendering
houses which require immense capital to construct and operate.

Taking all these prerequisites into consideration, it is
easy to see that Kansas City is pre-eminently the point on the
Missouri river at which a live-stock mart ought to be estab¬
lished, and by the united exertions of western stock-men,
sustained.

Stock marts, like cities, are not made in a day, or by a
single man, but by persistent and continued efforts of many
parties in interest. So if the western live-stock men desire
a market nearer their home than St. Louis or Chicago, it is
their duty to themselves to aid in making such a one. They
should second the efforts already put forth, and still being
made to create a good, complete live-stock mart at Kansas
City, because the point fills in a marked degree, all the es¬
sential requirements necessary to make a complete market.

The history of the beginning and development of some of
the facilities for doing a large stock trade, and the manner in
which the business is conducted, with sketches of some of the
representative men engaged therein, forms the purpose and
scope of this and the succeeding chapter.

In 1867 the cattle shipped from Abilene went by way of
Leavenworth to Chicago, but no good facilities for transfer-
ing over the Missouri river existed, and but little desire to
retain the business was manifested by Leavenworth, so the
following spring it went to Kansas City. There the Missouri
Pacific Company had built small yards, sufficient to accom-

OF THE. WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

274

modate only ten cars of stock, but which had previous to that
season never been full. As soon as the river was bridged,
the Hannibal & St. Joe Railroad company built small yards,
but they soon proved inadequate to accommodate the busi¬
ness, which was yearly growing larger.

In the Springof 1871, a joint stock company was formed
for the purpose of erecting and operating a complete feed and
transfer yard. A suitable tract of land was secured, and dur¬
ing 1871 quite a large portion of the ground covered with
yards, lanes, alleys, scales, barns, and a building for business
offices. Every railroad entering or departing from Kansas'
City soon connected with the yards, and business from the
beginning was brisk, crowding to their utmost capacity all
the facilities provided, and necessitating additional yards, hog
sheds, stables, and office room, until at the present the entire
tract of land is occupied.

Ample room exists for seven thousand head of cattle
and six thousand hogs at one time without over-crowding
but in a case of emergency fifty per cent, more could be taken
care of. Water fresh from the Kaw River, is conducted by
pipes laid under ground, to troughs provided in each yards,
also mangers for feeding hay in cattle yards, and floored pens
covered with roofs for shade and shelter, are provided for the
hogs and sheep.

The first year, that of 1871, 120,827 cattle, 41,036 hogs,
4,527 sheep, and 809 horses were received, of which but a
small per cent, were sold, for Kansas City was then naught
more than a feeding and resting point, no effort having been
put forth to make it a market. During the year of 1872,
236,800 cattle, 105,640 hogs, 2,648 horses, and 6,071 sheep,
were received at Kansas City, and a successful effort was
made to create a market. Its creation sprang from the ne¬
cessities of the situation. Parties failing to sell upon the
prairies naturally desired to sell at the first point at which it
was possible. Purchasers from the East naturally preferred
buying at Kansas City to going to the prairies, especially

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

276

was this the case when the frontier points of rendezvous for
cattle became numerous and distant apart. Large packing
houses were located at Kansas City, and its superior advan¬
tages in location and climate for doing a successful and profit¬
able packing business had become established, and thus a
considerable demand occurred, aside from that of North¬
western feeders and grazers. All these influences gradually
developed and created a market, which since its beginning
has grown rapidly.

During the year of 1873, 238,825 cattle, 201,1 13 hogs,
6,056 sheep and 3,961 horses were received, of which by far
the larger proportion were sold. The financial panic reduced
the receipts of cattle fully one hundred thousand during 1873.

It is a fact that although the prices which ruled at Kan¬
sas City during that season of financial distress were extremely
low and unsatisfactory to the drover and shipper, yet they
were much better than were realized farther east, freights and
charges being deducted. This is proven by the fact that of
the parties who bought in Kansas City market and shipped
forward to eastern markets, ten lost where one made money,
showing conclusively that they had paid too high for the stock.
Again it is a fact that shippers who refused to accept
offers for their stock at Kansas City, but shipped it forward
on their own account, almost invariably realized less net for
it than they had refused at Kansas City.

It has been abundantly demonstrated that at Kansas City
a good and complete live-stock market can be created or es¬
tablished ; one that will be alike beneficial to the western and
southwestern live-stock producers and to the northwestern
feeders and grazers, and it certainly is alike desirable and
profitable to both parties that such should be.

A near home market is essential to the producers of all
marketable commodities, and to none more so than the live¬
stock man, be he breeder, feeder, grazer or shipper.

The Kansas Stock Yards are under the management of

OF THE WEST

SOUTHWEST.

2 77

Superintendent Jerome D. Smith, who has been in charge
since the organization of the Company.

J. D. Smith has certainly a right to claim a cattleman’s
blood ; his father was one of the most widely known cattle
shippers in the northwest, having persistently shipped cattle
for forty-two consecutive years, and in that space of time was
“busted” ten different times — a comprehensive and sugges¬
tive commentary upon the business of live-stock shipping.

JEROME D. SMITH.

J. D. Smith was born, and reared to the age of seventeen,
in Newark, New Jersey, then came to Illinois, and after com¬
pleting his education, engaged in the live-stock trade on his
own account in Kansas and Missouri for two years, then went
to Chicago where for six years he acted in the capacity of
live stock agent for the Michigan Central and Great Western
Railways.

Finally, upon the organization of the Kansas Stock

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

278

Yard Company, he secured the position of Superintendent,
which he has filled to the satisfaction of the company. Mr.
Smith is a congenial, jovial young man, who has by energy
and application to duty, worked himself into an honorable
lucrative position, and by diligence and sober deportment has
won the esteem of many friends, and the kindest respect of
his employees, all of whom indulge the fondest hope and con¬
fidence in an honorable future for him. But the success of

GEO. N. ALTMAN.

the Kansas Stock Yards is quite as much due to its late Sec¬
retary and Treasurer, Geo. N. Altman, as to any other officer
connected therewith, for it is evident that his was a position
that required capacity and ability to administer as well as one
of no small degree of responsibility ; for it was upon him
rested the labor and responsibility of keeping, not only the
accounts of the stock yards’ own business, but of all the rail¬
road live stock deliveries and shipments. His books must

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

2 79

show the receipt of each and every car load of live stock,
from whence received, and how disposed of, whether cared
or driven out, and upon whose account, — in short the entire
workings and business of the yards. Besides the duties as
a Secretary, that of Treasurer imposed the collection of all
freight charges and the disbursing of the same. The posi¬
tions of secretary and treasurer are such as require positive
exactness in accounts, and impose great responsibility. The
position of secretary was given Mr. Altman at the first or¬
ganization of the Stock Yard Company, and after the first
year the position and duties of treasurer were added, in all of
which he acquitted himself to the entire satisfaction of the
company and to his own great credit.

Mr. Altman for several years previous to his connection
with the Kansas Stock Yards, was book-keeper and cashier
to a live stock commission firm in Chicago, who did a large
business, and was the one that sold the first train load of
Texan cattle that was shipped from Abilene ; the account of
sale of which was made by Mr. Altman. Previous to that he
held honorable positions of trust in the telegraph and ticket
department of the M. S. & N. I. R. R.

Mr. Altman was a quiet, mild, accomplished gentleman,
who had by energy, honesty, and real ability, merited and
obtained positions of honor and responsibility, and had won
scores of friends and admirers, all of whom esteemed him
Highly, alike for his many good qualities of heart as well as
his persistent laborious attention to the interest of the com¬
pany. When, upon a bright morning late in the year of
1873, it was announced that Mr. Altman was dead, fallen a
victim of incurable consumption, a deep sadness pervaded
the habitues of the stock mart, and the tear of sorrow glistened
in many eyes unaccustomed to weeping.

The manner in which live stock are received, fed, wa¬
tered, rested and otherwise cared for, and the manner in
which they are handled, sold, weighed and delivered, may be
of interest to the general reader ; therefore to this his atten-

28o

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

tion is invited. As soon as a train bringing stock arrives at
the yards, and is drawn up to the platform for unloading, the
employees of the yard company (of which there are ma;.y),
at once open the car doors, put down a small bridge from the
car floor to the platform and drive the stock out and down
the inclining platform into the alleys, along which they are
hastily driven to a yard of proper size, into which they are
turned. Soon after, they are watered and fed according to
order of shipper. Large barns for storing baled hay and
corn are provided, and a shipper can have his stock fed,
either or both, and only has to pay for the amount he orders,
and if no sale of his stock is made, no charge is made for
yardage, or reloading, which is done by the yard company.
Only in case of sale are charges of yardage made for stock
which includes weighing. A large building is provided for the
business offices. Some of the principal railroads maintain
special stock agents, whose offices are near by. The upper
floor is divided off into small compartments, or offices, which
are occupied by live-stock commission merchants. The en¬
tire premises are under the control of the Superintendent,
whose word or command is law to all the employees of the
yard company. If he is efficient, there is no minutia or de¬
tail that he does not give his personal attention. There is
great need that he be a practical cattle man, with business
capacity equal to any emergency.

The business of live stock commission merchants is to
take care of, feed, water, sell, and render to the owner an ac¬
count of such consignments of live stock, as he may be able
to obtain either from his patrons direct or from such as may
arrive with stock not consigned to any other house. It in a
part of his duties to keep himself fully posted as to prices,
not only in the market in which he sells, but of all distant
markets, besides always keeping a sharp look out for live
stock buyers for all grades, and in short, to keep, and be a
kind of general intelligence office concerning live stock men
and matters. To which it might be truthfully added, to be a

282

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

most obedient servant or convenience, to perform any errand
or office for a live stock man that may be desired. There are
few men who do as much work for so little pay as the.average
commission merchant, and certainly none who do more to
create good markets than he, and notwithstanding that, it is
common to hear ignorant dolts mouthing, otherwise, they are
as a class, honest, fair, business men. Indeed they coula not
be otherwise, and succeed for any considerable length of
time, because the competition and rivalry is so great, and
competitors so watchful, that any other than an upright, cor¬
rect course or manner of doing business, would be exposed
and published to the world. Again the rivalry impels them
to work for the highest prices, in order to please and ho!d
their customers, and they usually know better than one who
has just arrived, or is seldom on market, the true value of
all grades of stock, besides they know the man, if any there
be who desires any particular grade of stock. There are men
engaged in live stock commission in every mart, and none can
be cited where they are not found also, and as a body, do much
toward establishing good markets. Among the first, if not
the first man to locate at Kansas City and attempt to estab¬
lish a live stock commission house, was W. A. Rogers, who
had been for two years previously, and still is connected as a
partner in the house of Robert Strahom & Co., of Chicago.
Soon after he decided to locate at Kansas City, he entered
into a firm, which after one or more changes, is now widely
known as Rogers, Powers & Co. The experiment was a
success from the first, and the close of the second year showed
that a business of near two thousand cars of stock had been
done annually.

Mr. Rogers was born in Indiana, but while young was taken
by his parents to Iowa, where he remained until he attained
the years of manhood, after which period, farming and local
live stock trading engaged his attention for three years.
Finding the stock business more congenial to his tastes he
abandoned farming and formed his Chicago business connec-

or THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

283

WILLIAM A. ROGERS.

tions and went to Kansas, where for two years he bought,
shipped, and fed cattle, always keeping a sharp lock-out for
chances to improve the business of his Chicago house.
Finally additional business relations and a permanent location
at Kansas City were decided upon. Perhaps few men so
young are so widely known in the West as Mr. Rogers.
Young, energetic, shrewd and quick, never slow to discern an
opening or an opportunity for a profitable business operation,
and untiring in his efforts to increase his business. A good
judge of the quality and value of live stock, a close observer of
human nature, readily reading a man’s thoughts in the ex¬
pression of his countenance, and never at a loss to know how
to turn it to advantage. Fortune has dealt liberally with him,
and success crowns most of his undertakings. With his
ability, experience and already acquired capital, it is easy to
see that the future is full of hope and bright promises for him.

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

284

Both firms, as now constituted, with which he is connected,
present combinations of capital and practical adaptability to
the business rarely met with, and ensures the utmost good
faith and responsibility.

It is not often we meet permanently located at a market,
aged men ; men whose heads bear nature’s silvery crown of
honor — whose patriarchal beard reminds the beholder of the
Ancients, and in whose presence one intuitively feels the rever-

J. L. MITCHEKER.

ence due to venerable experience and wisdom — but ever and
anon we do meet such an one — such is J. L. Mitchener, who
stands at the head of the capable house of Mitchener & Son.
His life has been a varied one, one ever cast in busy exciting
scenes. Born and reared to manhood in Pennsylvania, where
with his father he was annually engaged in large live-stock
feeding operations, being thoroughly schooled in the manner
of handling, feeding, and marketing stock. Whilst yet a

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

285

young man, not above a score in years, he incidently visited
the State of Ohio. So soon as he perceived the great ad¬
vantages for live-stock operations that that new State then
offered, he determined to realize their benefits. Accordingly
after spending a short time in making needful preparations
he entered the, to him, promiseful Buckeye State, and within
her borders made his home for seventeen years, two-thirds of
which time was devoted to a profitable live-stock business,
and the remaining third to manufacturing product of live¬
stock in the city of Cincinnati, in which and in other products,
he was a heavy operator. But in time he became restless in
the pent-up city and longed for the freedom of the country
— for the vocation of the stock farm — and having tasted the
unrestrained exciting life peculiar to a new country, concluded
to try Illinois, and in 1854 took up his abode upon a good
farm of seven hundred acres which he had previously bought.

After spending five years in his rural home, engaged
successfully in extensive live-stock operations, he went to
St. Joseph, Missouri, at the solicitation of a St. Louis pack¬
ing firm, and aided in conducting a large packing establish-
ment. Here again the great new west, the mighty predes¬
tined valley of the Missouri enraptured him. Thinking that
he could foresee the day, which to him looked as one not dis¬
tant, when the onward, westward march of civilization would
develope that rich, new country into a garden of beauty, an
eldorado of health ; and with a ken little short of prophetic,
saw and believed in the coming greatness and commercial
importance of Kansas City. Therefore to that point he
brought his effects, and it is said actually built the first pack¬
ing house ever erected there, but the unforeseen war soon
occurring, he was induced out of motives to preserve his family,
to return to Chicago, where he again connected himself with
a prominent packing house. Soon thereafter, the project of
the Union Stock Yards took shape, and to the enterprise he
grave his aid, and was the first man to actually break dirt,
setting the first post, and nailing the first board in their erec-

286

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

tion ; and when the yards were so far completed as to be open
for business, he accepted the position of Division Superin¬
tendent, which position he held until the year 1869, when he
established the house of which he now stands at the head.
In a life in which fickle fortune alternates a smiling and frown¬
ing countenance, most men become in age morose and sour,
or settle down in hopeless impotency apparently only waiting
the last summons, thus confessing life a failure, and life’s
rugged steeps too precipitous for them to reattempt to scale,
since once attaining have been hurled to the bottom.
Not so with Mr. J. L. Mitchener — his voice is as cheery,
his air as confident, his manner as open, frank, up and above
board when in poverty’s narrowest rut as when upon fortunes
most gilded hights. With him it matters not, hope and man¬
hood is high whether his purse be full or collapsed, for he
believes “ A man’s a man for all that.” The commission
house at the head of which he stands, is one among the reli¬
able and capable established in Kansas City during the
year 1872. Its business is steadily increasing, and its already
long list of patrons is'daily augmenting.

Most of the men engaged in live stock commission are
either Western born or Western raised, and often both.
Such is the case with Geo. R. Barse. Wisconsin is the State
of his nativity, although he was educated at Detroit, Michi¬
gan. Then he went to Illinois and began business for him¬
self as a grain and live stock dealer, which occupation he fol¬
lowed but too closely for three years. At the earliest call for
volunteers, he enrolled his name and served his country faith¬
fully four years, fourteen months of which time he was a pris¬
oner in the South, and was in nearly every prison pen in
Dixie. Four different times did he escape, three times
was he re-taken, but the last time success crowned his efforts
and he joined Sherman’s “bummers” on their way to the
Sea. When peace was restored, he returned to Illinois and
resumed his old business, which he followed with varying for¬
tune until the year of 1871, in which he formed connections

or THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

287

GEORGE R. BARSE.

with one of Chicago’s most widely known live stock firms,
and the following year came to Kansas City. But the great
panic of 1873 had the effect of severing his connections with
the Chicago house, and he formed other connections. Mr.
Barse understands the practical management of live stock,
and is a good salesman. He is a whole-souled, good-
tempered man, whose record for integrity, energy and a con¬
scientious application to the interests of his patrons is un¬
potted.

Some of the Chicago commission houses have estab¬
lished branch offices at Kansas City, which are usually con¬
ducted under the same name as the original house. Such is
the case with the well and favorably known house of Hough
Reeves & Co., whose Kansas City salesman is John Salis¬
bury’, a man who was reared to the business, beginning at
loodth street. New York City, the city of his birth. After

288

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

selling for years in New York he went to Albany and Buffalo,
stopping for a year at each ; he finally went to Southern Illi¬
nois where he occupied himself as a local trader until the
outbreak of the war, at the close of which he returned to
New York city, and for three years continued his old first vo¬
cation, then went to Chicago, and after selling on that mar-

JOHN SALISBURY.

ket for the house with which he now is, for two years, was
transferred to Kansas City where he has been for more than
two years, and where he expects to remain permanently.
The house for which he acts as salesman, is one of the most
substantial financially, and widely known firms in the west,
and in the person of Mr. Salisbury they have an able, expe-,
rienced salesman, who can discern at a glance the correct
grade and value of a drove of cattle, and can sell them for
every dollar they are worth on the market. It is only neces¬
sary for him to attend strictly to the business in which he is

or THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST. 2g^

engaged to make sure of abundant success and a prosperous
future.

It might be supposed that a firm, one or more of whose
members were Texans, would naturally attract and receive
the patronage of Southern drovers. Their suspicion of a
Northern man is deep and universal. Therefore they prefer
to entrust one from their own State with their business. Ac¬
cordingly it is not unfrequent that one or more Northern men
will associate with themselves one or more Texan men, and
thus present a house unobjectionable to men from either sec¬
tion.

WILLIAM H. KINGSBERY.

W. H. Kingsbery, of the firm of Matthews, Kingsbery
& Co., one of Kansas City’s most enterprising live stock
commission houses, is well known to Texans as being a mem¬
ber of the firm of Kingsbery & Holmsley, of Comanche,
Texas. Born and reared to the age of sixteen in the State of

. SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

290

Georgia, he became so enraptured with the glowing accounts
of the great new State of Texas that he determined to emi¬
grate hither.

Not having funds to travel by public conveyance, yet so
determined was he to try his fortune in the distant Lone Star
State, that he set out afoot and alone, and tramped the entire
distance from Georgia to the Western frontier of Texas,
where he promptly accepted the position of clerk in a country
store. After many years of hard struggling, self denial and
economy, he became enabled to establish a business for him¬
self, by purchasing a small branch store from his former em¬
ployer. This opportunity was improved to the best advan¬
tage, and the foundation of a future substantial business and
a sound, strong credit was carefully laid.

Men who in their youth receive a thorough drilling in ad¬
versity, and thus not only learn the intrinsic value of a dol¬
lar, but how to make and take care of one, invariably make
earth’s most successful business men, those who manifest
actual talent and business capacity, and the rule holds as to
the subject of this sketch. When the war came, he took part
as a soldier and served actively for three years, but on receiv¬
ing a severe wound he returned home, and as soon as he was
able took up his vocation as a merchant.

At the close of the war money was very scarce in Texas,
everything being uncurrent except specie, and much of the
business in the merchandising line had to be done in ex¬
change for cattle. During 1867, and for two succeeding
years, Kingsbery & Holmsley found buyers at or near home
for such stock as they had taken in exchange for goods. For
the next four years they sent their herds to Kansas, first ' to
Baxter Springs, then to Ellsworth, and lastly to Coffeyville.
Their annual drives would average fully twenty-five hundred
head.

Finding it necessary for an agency at Kansas City, they
opened a commission house there in 1872, under same firm
name as the Texas business was conducted. The following

OF THE WuiaiiD SOUTHWEST. 2gj

year a new combination was made, and in Kansas City’s
stock mart the name of Matthews, Kingsbery & Co. are as
iamiliar as household words.

As a firm they are liberal, straightforward, upright ; and
posses indomitable energy, coupled with integrity, financial
responsibility and good practical judgment in matters per¬
taining to live-stock.

The house is firmly established and its business, already
of enormous proportions is daily increasing. Mr. Kingsbery
is of that class of men to whom any vocation or community
may refer to with pride.

RANDOLPH NICHOLS.

During the month of August, 1872, R. Nichols, who
had formed connections with a prominent firm in Chicago,
established a house at Kansas City under the firm name ot
R. Nichols & Co., and flung his shingle to the breeze. He
was already quite well known in the west, having been in

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

292

the western cattle trade for three years previously, besides
having been an active local trader in Illinois, where he was
reared to manhood, although born in Ohio. Mr. Nichols was
not slow in establishing a lively paying business ; but the
great panic dealt harshly with him, clouding his bright pros¬
pects of honorable success.

He is quick, shrewd, sharp, and a good salesman, one
who can always get fair prices for his consignments. One
would scarce suppose to look upon his youthful, boyish face,
that he was a business man of eight years’ experience, yet
such is the fact.

Such are the men who first engaged in the attempt to
create or establish a live stock market at Kansas City. An
attempt worthy of success, and one fraught with great good
to western and southern live-stock men, as well as to Kansas
City, for it brings to her a lucrative commerce, amounting to
many millions of dollars annually. But certain adjuncts, or
aids of some commission firms, may be of interest to the gen¬
eral reader. Active men are employed to perform various
duties ; but the particular class now referred to are the solicitors
— those whose duty it is to meet every train and secure such
stock as may not be consigned to any commission house. So
soon as an incoming train is announced nearing the stock
yards, the hurrying tramp of solicitors, vulgarly, but not in¬
appropriately, called “ Scalpers,” may be heard hustling
toward the unloading platform. If there is a shipper on the
train whose stock is not consigned, they proceed in a cheeky
sang froid manner to interview him, presenting the business
cards of the commission firms which have the Scalpers em¬
ployed. Such oily persuasive arguments as scarce ever fell
from mortal’s lips, are poured into the ear of a newly arrived
shipper. But the first Scalper to reach the ear of the shipper
enjoys but a brief monopoly of his attention, before a second
representing another and competing house or firm, puts in
not only a presence but a lip also, and with a coolness and
self possession beyond comprehension, plucks the shipper to

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

29S

"SCALPING.”

one side and begins to pump him full of the points in favor
of the house, or firm, which Scalper number two serves.
But before the pleasant duty is half completed, Scalper num¬
ber three arrives and straightway goes to the shipper, grasps
his hand in the most cordial and familiar manner, just as if he
was an old schoolmate and bosom friend, although ten to one
Scalper number three never saw the shipper before, and cares
little whether he ever does afterward, especially if he fails to
get the shipper’s stock turned over to the desired firm before
Scalper number four captures the shipper only to see number
one, who has recharged his mortar, retake the shipper, who be¬
comes so dumfounded and fuddled, that he scarce knows his
own name, much less where he is, or what he wants. The Scalp¬
er is a distinctive type of the genus homo , is supposed to be
omnivorous and brimful of bland cheek, of which he has more
than an army mule ; but in this he does not excel more than

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

294

in facile glib talk — genuine chin-music and cool impertinence.
To say he has a conscience, much less is ever checked, or
restrained thereby, is to state a proposition without having
an experienced observing believer. He is au fait on all
matters pertaining to his firm, as well as to all points against
a competitor. Nevertheless he is an “ institution,” a kind
of necessary evil, about the propriety of maintaining which
commission men differ. However when a covey of Scalpers
do unitedly beset a verdant country shipper, a humane man
can but feel that they are a nuisance that ought to be speedily
and thoroughly abated. Sometimes a Scalper will perpetrate
a sharp practical joke on some comrade'such an one as may
be late getting to a newly arrived train, upon which there
may be a car of horses, the shipper of which will be pointed
out to the unposted Scalper, accompanied with the remark
that, “That man has a load of stock for you.” Then to see
the Scalper rush to the man and ask him if they are natives
— if they are butchers, or shippers, cows or steers, long horns
or short horns, through or wintered, and such other questions
as the Scalper imagines would betoken a profound deep in¬
terest in the stranger’s welfare. But when he learns that he
is “sold,” his indignation is only excelled by his loud curses.
When the reader is told that Kansas City is not a horse mar¬
ket, and all those arriving there are only in transit to other
points, he will comprehend the discomfiture of the Scalper.

At the beginning of the year 1873, the conviction was firm
and wide-spread that at Kansas City, a complete live-stock
market, was established beyond doubt. All the essential re-
quisets and necessities'existed for the creation of such a mart,
and the results of the previous year had demonstrated its prac¬
ticability. Early in the season several new firms and partner¬
ships were formed, preparatory to a vigorous summer’s cam¬
paign with the bovines and porcine grunters. Among the new
firms established none was more notable as being composed
of substantial, practical, clear-headed business men, than that
of Hunter, Pattison & Evans — since changed to Hunter,

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

ROBERT C. WHITE.

or even known to the stock-feeders of that vicinity. Of
course this condition or state of affairs made a good opening
for the establishment of such a house, and R. C. White, long
a resident of Kansas City, and well known to every stock-
man in the adjoining country, entered the arena of the Kansas
Stock Yards and opened a live-stock commission house, under
the firm name of White, Allen & Co. It did not require
great forecast to see that his undertaking would be a success,

Evans & Co. Each member of this firm is a successful live
stockman of long experience, which coupled with their indi¬
vidual responsibility, renders their house one altogether reli¬
able and safe, and one which adds greatly to Kansas City’s
young, flourishing live-stock mart. But of all the commis¬
sion houses established up to July 1873, there was none w.hich
was known to, or composed in whole or in part, of local live¬
stock men, or such as were residents of western Missouri ;

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

296

or a long lapse of time to demonstrate it. From the begin¬
ning business offered, and as time progressed it greatly in¬
creased until at the end of six months the firm stood
among the first in the yards. Mr. White hails the State of
Kentucky as that of his birth. When but a boy he left his
native State and after rambling through Texas he came to
Missouri and made his home near Platte City, where his time
was divided between his farm and local live-stock trading.
Finally deciding that Kansas City offered superior induce¬
ments, he moved his residence there and for sixteen consecu¬
tive years followed diligently and with varying fortunes, his
chosen vocation, that of live-stock trading, which embraced
cattle, horses, jnules, sheep, hogs — anything, no matter what,
so it had four feet, either with or without horns. Seldom
shipping anything away to market, but nearly always selling
to some professional shipper who preferred greater risk and
less work. Nevertheless Mr. White has experienced all the
phases of ups and downs, fortune and adversity, so peculiar
to stock traders, and that seems to be the inevitable fate of all
live-stock shippers. No matter from what source his misfor¬
tune came, whether by declining markets or by surety obli¬
gations he stood square to the issue, and paid dollar for dol¬
lar till the last obligation was cancelled. Such integrity, in
time, always establishes unlimited confidence in he who ex¬
hibits it, and such is the case with Mr. White. A kind, cour¬
teous, true man, whose plain, straightforward manner im¬
presses one with his exalted unassuming manhood.

Such are the leading men who are seeking to make a
great live-stock market at Kansas City — men who are laying
the foundations of a mart that is destined at no distant day
to rank, in numbers of live-stock received, the equal of any
other in the United States. But these men are not alone or
unaided in their great efforts. They have the moral and busi¬
ness support of every right-minded western live-stock man,
as well as the encouragement of Kansas City’s leading busi¬
ness men, besides the aid and influence of the enlightened

K^ptKer

CASHIERS AND ACCOUNTANTS.

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

298

management of every line of railroad entering the city of
which there is a large number.

To conduct their business each house retains in its em¬
ploy a corps of assistants who are detailed to the various de¬
partments of business. Every well regulated and successful
commission house employs one or more good book-keepers
and accountants. These are usually young and middle-aged
men of good business qualifications and steady habits, each of
whom look eagerly forward to the day when they will estab¬
lish a business of their own. No where in the West can a
galaxy of finer, truer young men be found than in the ex¬
change building of the Kansas City live stock mart.

It is often asked why live stock shipping can not be con¬
ducted like any other ordinary business without great losses.
The reasons are various, some of which may be named. In
the first place the manner in which the business is conducted
in the West necessitates the shipper to buy stock often
months in advance of shipping.

It is the custom when a shipper determines to ship cattle
during the year or season, for him to mount his horse, tra¬
verse the cattle feeding district and contract for various lots
of cattle to be received at stipulated times in the future. The
shipper usually manages to have about an equal proportion
of the cattle he buys or contracts for, to be received each
week, so that he may have a shipment on market being sold,
another going forward, and still another being received and
collected at the various shipping yards along the line of rail¬
way over which he is sending the stock. Now it is plain that
unless he pre-arranges his shipments he may occasionally be
unable to obtain the stock, for if he has not bought ahead
some other shipper has entered the field, and bought or con¬
tracted all the cattle. It is equally plain upon reflection that
buying to receive ahead is much like gambling with the feeder
on the future price or value of his stock. It may be com¬
pared, and not inaptly to an insurance or guaranty business
in which the shipper guarantees or insures the feeder a cer-

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

299

tain price for his cattle, agreeing to take the excess realized
over the price paid or stipulated for his premium on the risk
taken and for his services in marketing the stock. Of course
the feeder is not obliged to sell or contract his cattle in ad¬
vance of delivery, and will not unless it is at a price that pays
him a handsome profit, which often puts the cattle at such
figures that the shipper can not realize first cost. Again, a
man who ships live stock, by his continual risk soon becomes
reckless and imprudent, loses his caution and “ goes it blind.”

Again, the time between purchasing a drove of cattle in the
West and the day they can be put upon the eastern market is
nearly or quite two weeks in which the market often declines
heavily. It requires the most extreme speculative turn of
mind to constitute a live stock shipper ; none other would take
the risks ; none other would hazard so much for the chance of
gaining so little. Persistent shipping engenders loss of busi-

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

300

ness prudence and creates a feverish speculative turn of mind
in which there is little cool, solid judgment, but an ever in¬
creasing desire for greater operations and greater hazards.
Heavy losses incurred alike with large gains stimulate the
shipper to renewed efforts. In the first instance to cover, in
the last to increase the amount already gained.

For one of his age it would be difficult to find a better
specimen or illustration of cattle shippers than L. M. Hunter,
who, although scarce more than one and a half score of years
old, has shipped many thousands of cattle. Indeed he is
never so happy as when he is shipping from one to three
thousand head of cattle weekly. Born and reared in Illinois,
his father a life-long shipper, he began shipping when but a
boy, and the passion has grown with and upon him until it is
more than a part of his nature. After operating upon his
own account for several years, in which he experienced all
the phases, successes and reverses peculiar if not inevitable,
to a life-long shipper, he associated himself with his father
in the firm of J. B. Hunter & Co., and took charge of and
conducted the business of the firm in the west with office at
Kansas City.

There are but few Western drovers who do not know
him familiarly. No one ever entered the Western trade that
bought so many cattle as he, and few young men had so
many friends among live stock men. He is the very embodi¬
ment of energy, seemingly never caring to rest, sleep, or
scarcely to eat. Sinewy, wiry, restless, always looking for an
opportunity to trade, never idle for a moment and always in
a hurry ; withal a man of fair judgment about live stock, and
a man of many good qualities of head and heart.

CHAPTER XV.

THE PACKING INTEREST AT KANSAS CITY - ESTABLISHMENT O T

PLANKINTON & ARMOUR - PIG KILLING - CATTLE KILLING -

DRESSING AND SAWING BEEF - T. J. BIGGER - E. W. PATTISON.

Before Kansas City assumed to be a live-stock mart,
even before any fitting accommodation to feed or rest any
large number of cattle in transit was provided, it attracted
the attention of packers, as being an eligible point for pack¬
ing establishments. As early as 1868, the house known
as the Stone house, now owned and operated by Messrs.
Noffsinger & Co., was erected, and as soon as completed
was occupied, first killing cattle, then hogs, and prepar¬
ing the product thereof for commerce and consumption.
In a few years other and larger houses were built, until
four are now standing upon the banks of the Missouri
river, just where it makes the “great bend,” turning ab¬
ruptly from its southerly course, rolls onward in an almost
direct eastward course across the State of Missouri, pour¬
ing its turbid waters into the Mississippi river. Two of
the houses are in the State of Kansas, the other two are
in the State of Missouri. It is enough to say that the
location for packing houses could not be improved upon or
surpassed in the west. This may be truthfully said as to the
exact grounds upon which they are built, as well as the point
in the west at which they are located. For Kansas City with
her network of railroads, already built, and in process of
building, being located in the center of a district of country
fully three hundred miles in diameter, which — as an inevita¬
ble result of its unparalleled fertility, and its immense yield
of corn annually — must ever be a prolific hog country as well

3°2

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

as a great cattle-feeding district, and must not only be, from the
very nature of the situation, a good and great live-stock
mart ; but also a choice point for packing establish¬
ments. Just beyond the corn producing area to the west¬
ward and southwest, is the illimitable grass belt, which will
ever furnish ample supplies of suitable cattle for packing
purposes, at prices and in conditions not attainable at other
points. Again its proximity to the plains and mountains
will, in consequence of the pure air, enable it to put up meats
successfully at times, and temperatures which would forbid
operation at any other packing point east of it. These rea¬
sons in connection with the fact that large establishments for
packing cattle exclusively cannot be profitably maintained,
ensures the future permanency of the beef-packing to it.
Shrewd, practical operators, seeing these truthful reasons and
advantages, have occupied the grounds in part. Now as
large and prosperous packing houses arranged for handling
both cattle and hogs, are already in operation there, as can
be found on this or any other continent, and that, too, without
likelihood of ever being removed or excelled by any other
point. Among the largest and most completely equipped
and operated establishments, is that of Messrs. Plankinton
& Armour’s — an establishment which covers an area of land
equal to three acres, with capacity to handle one thousand
cattle and three thousand hogs per day. Built of brick, its
massive walls rise up in imposing strength and extent, like
the battlements of some ancient fortified city. There are
few, if any, superior establishments of the kind in the United
States. It is but one of three packing houses owned by the
same firm — one being located in Chicago, the other in Mil¬
waukee, Wisconsin. Their brands and trade-marks are favor¬
ably and widely known throughout the United States, and
not unknown in the Old World. The other Kansas City
packing establishments have an aggregate capacity equal to
that of Plankinton & Armour’s, so that in a single day it is
posible at Kansas City to slaughter and dress two thousand

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

304

cattle and six thousand hogs, and in the same time to cut and
salt the carcases of as many more.

The country surrounding and tributary to the point when
developed can furnish annually one half million cattle and
two million hogs. It is evident to the thoughtful observer,
that the Missouri Valley must develope some metropolitan
live stock mart, some point at which her live stock production
can be converted or manufactured into merchantable com¬
modities. Such a point Kansas City seeks to be, and if the
brief past shall be a criterion whereby to judge the future,
success may as well be conceded. But for the purpose, if
possible, of conveying to the reader a correct idea of how
meats are prepared for market and export, a few pages are
devoted to the packing business, or the mode and manner of
transforming live stock into merchantable product. The
illustrations so far as practicable were made from sketches
and photographs on the ground, and are from scenes at the
establishment of Plankinton & Armour, their facilities being
the most complete and extensive, embracing the very latest
improvements and conveniences.

The hog crop for packing purposes is the most important,
from the significant fact that the consumption of salt beef is
annually decreasing, and the use of fresh beef is increasing,
while the use of salt and cured pork is annually increasing
very perceptibly, and the consumption of fresh pork is dimin¬
ishing in a marked manner. But the manner of slaughtering
and curing pork has of late been extensively illustrated, so
that it has been thought best to give greater attention to
cattle than hog packing, although in point of numbers and
value it is inferior. Yet it is by no means an insignificant
branch of commercial industry. During the fall seasons of
1871 and ’72 over 68,000 cattle were packed at Kansas City,
and at the same point during the single season of 1873, fully
26,500 were slaughtered, and the product fitted for com¬
merce. During the packing season of 1872 and ’73 180,000
hogs were packed, and t'he number slaughtered during the

OV THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

305

season of 1873 and ’74 falls not much short of 200,000. The
panic of ’73 embarrassed the packing business greatly.

The manner in which the porcines are hurried from the
feed pen to the pork barrel is summary and expeditious.
When they are made fat by the farmer, chiefly on corn — every
well-to-do husbandman raising and fatting a herd of greater
or smaller number, owing to his thrift, enterprise and facili¬
ties — they are gathered together at the most convenient
railroad stations, and loaded upon the cars and hurried to
market, where their stay is usually brief before they are sold
and hustled to the establishment of some packer, in whose
yards they do not remain long before they are driven up an
inclined plane or gangway, securely boarded up on either
side, reaching to the uppermost story of the building, where
they are secured in a large pen, from which they are passed
in little squads into smaller pens within the slaughter room.
Overhead an endless single bar or rail track is firmly arranged,
upon which are movable single wheel pullys to which
are attached self-tightening grappling hooks or chains.

Before piggy is aware of it, one of those clamps is arouud
one of his hind legs, and he is hoisted by steam power
off the floor. Thus suspended he is rolled over a platform
arranged to receive and carry off his gore, upon which plat¬
form stands a muscular, active and skilled fellow, who grasps
the suspended, frightened, struggling pig by the fore leg with
his left hand, whilst with his right he thrusts a keen blade to
the pig’s heart, letting out life-blood copiously, at the same in¬
stant giving him a heave toward the scalding tub. An inclin¬
ing chute terminating in the scalding tub receives his dead,
or dying body, the instant his foot is disengaged from the
grapling irons by an ingenious contrivance. Down the chute
he glides, and in an instant is submerged in the hot scalding
water which is maintained at just the required terperature by
means of steam pipes. Over and over he is rolled until near
the other end of the scalding vat, where in a twinkle he is
thrown up by mechanical appliances on to the scraping table

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

307

or platform toward the other end of which he never ceases to
be rolled, all the while being scraped by the score of laborers
who speedily denude him of his coating of hair.

When the lower end of the cleaning, or scraping table
is reached, he is under another single track railway upon
whioh run single pulleys with a flat hook attached suitable to
receive a gammon stick, each end of which is inserted be¬
neath the strong leader of his hind legs. So soon as the
gammon is placed, piggy slides lightly off the platform and
hangs by his hind legs. A push, and a whirl, and he is in the
presence of the butcher, who with an expedition incredible,
disembowels the subject almost in a moment ; an insertion
of the knife, twist of the wrist, a rip down piggy’s belly, and
his entrails are out, flying through the air en route to the
tables where they receive proper attention, whilst steaming
disemboweled piggy’s carcass goes spinning off on its easy
moving pully to the cooling room ; it is there placed upon
guys and permitted to hang over night to cool.

On the following day the carcass is taken down and
thrown upon the cleaving block, and is speedily cut into such
shaped pieces as are desired. Meats for certain markets
and for certain purposes are cut different to those intended
for other purposes or different markets. After cutting, sort¬
ing and trimming, the meat passes down inclining chutes to
its proper salting-room below, where it is salted in bulk or
barreled as desired. The reader should bear in mind in fol¬
lowing a single subject in its quiet transit from the living pig
to salt pork, that the way is thronged by a host of others fol¬
lowing in close succession. The establishment from which
the illustrations are taken, when run to its full capacity em¬
ploys near five hundred men, active, muscular fellows, who
under the direction of a foreman move things at a very lively
rate.

A story illustrative of the expedition with which busi¬
ness is dispatched at a packing house is told of an old Ter¬
ritorial farmer, of Illinois, who declined current prices for his

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

309

little squad of long-nosed hazel-splitters, but concluded an
arrangement with a packing firm, (which was doing a large
business, to have his hogs slaughtered and packed on com¬
mission. Accordingly he placed them in the yards belonging
to the establishment, and essayed to watch what become of
them, and so prevent any stealing — or substituting mean hogs
for his good ones — which he was very suspicious would be
done. But the process through which his hogs were taken was
so unexpectedly rapid, that he was thrown into unutterable
confusion and bewilderment. When he saw great burly, stal¬
wart, powerful men, with iron hooks, hurling his indistinguish¬
able porkers, with others, over a partition into, he could not
tell or find out where, he became wild with excitement and
fear, but finally gave up in despair, and rushed to the office
of the establishment. Sinking heavily down into a chair he
exclaimed in a voice expressive of ruin and despair : “ Mr.
Clerk, I cast myself upon your honor. Yes, sir, right upon
yer honesty. If you ever do find them thar hogs of mine,
and can get anything outen em, jist let me know ; jist now I
want to go home — I feel so bad ! Oh ! so bad ! I want to
see my wife, then go to bed, I do. Yes, Mr. Clerk, upon
your honesty — I trust upon your honor — oh, dear me !” The
old farmer rushed from the office to his “old mar” and was
off for home, fully determined next time to sell out his “crap”
of hogs, and leave the business of packing to those who
could understand it.

But the manner of slaughtering and dressing cattle, they
being much larger animals, differs greatly from that of hogs.
Cattle packing is chiefly done in the late fall and early winter
months, when a supply of grass-fatted stock can be had, and
the weather is sufficiently cold to thoroughly cool the meat.
It is only grass-fatted cattle that can be had at prices
sufficiently low to justify packing. For this reason, corn-
fatted cattle are seldom, if ever, packed. Hence a point near
the plains where cattle are cheaply bred and fatted, at which
a supply of hogs can also be had, is the one most likely to

3io

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

do the principle portion of cattle packing. Such a point
Kansas City rightly claims to be.

When a herd of cattle is placed in the yards adjoining
a packing establishment for the purpose of being packed,
they are separated into squads of two or three and driven
through a long narrow lane, and forced into a small box pen,
the gate being securely fastened behind them. A dozen or
more of those box pens are located side by side, all connected
with the main lane, or drive way, so that the men in the yards
always have empty pens to fill. So soon as a pen is filled, a
man standing upon a narrow gangway, just above the cattle’s
heads, with a rifle loaded with fixed ammunition, shoots the
bullocks in the head. The ball ranges down into or through
the brain, producing instant death. Of course the bullock
instantly drops, only to receive the falling body of his com¬
rade.

Formerly a long pike was used, with which the brute
was speared just behind the horns, or forehead, upon the top
of the neck, where the vertebrae joins the head. But this
method of killing was abandoned, as being less humane than
the rifle. Often when good aim was not taken, or the animal,
at the critical moment moved its head, it would be mangled
horribly, but not killed without repeated blows.

So soon as all are shot down in any one pen, a rising
door, which divides the pen from the inner portion of the
establishment, is hoisted, and a man enters from within the
house dragging a long chain with a noose formed at the end
thereof. This chain extends back and around certain pulleys
and up to a revolving drum, or windlass, which is driven by
steam and governed by means of a lever in the hands of a
person whftse sole duty is to manage the machine, stopping
and starting it instantly at the call of the man who handles
the chain. This he drops over the bullock’s head, around his
neck, or horns, as may be convenient, then calls for power,
which the man at the lever at once applies, and the bullock is
drawn out on a narrow floor, inclining toward a gutter, or

SKF.TC HES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

312

drain, near to which the head of the bullock is stopped. The
chain loosened the drawing out operation is repeated upon
the comrade, which is left lying beside him. Then the chain
man shifts his chain into the next pully and enters the next
pen. So soon as the bullock is stopped upon the narrow in¬
clining floor, a butcher opens the skin on the under side of
the neck and cuts both jugular veins, thus letting the hot
blood run freely upon the floor, thence into the drain, which
conducts it from the building and empties it into the river.
Even before the blood is done flowing, and before the bullock
is quiet in death, the butchers begin dressing it, one taking
off its head, first denuding it of the skin, another peels the
hide down the legs to the knees, then adroitly separates
the joint, throwing the feet and shins upon the floor, from
whence an urchin removes them to the proper room.
The bullock is then turned upon its back, being propped by a
short pointed brace, and another pair of butchers take it in
charge, and whilst the first two are beheading and unlimbing
the next bullock, they quickly strip the hide from belly, quar¬
ters, and sides of the animal. Then comes one or more
men and insert a strong gammon, of four or more feet in
length, in the hocks beneath the hamstrings of the hinder
legs. In the middle of the gammon stick a flat iron hook is
adjusted, which is attached to a strong rope running over a
pully aloft, and is wound up on a windlass so rigged and
geared, that a muscular man can raise slowly upward the car¬
cass of the bullock, which is fast relieved of its hide and en¬
trails, whilst so moving. So soon as the hide, is off and
the inwards taken out, the carcass is split in twain, divid¬
ing the back bone with a broad-bladed ax, save a small por¬
tion of muscle at the back of the neck. The hide is dragged
off to a small hole in the floor, through which it is tumbled to
the salting cellar below. The paunch and entrails are dragged
with hooks of steel to their proper rooms, whilst the lungs
are thrown into the drain with the blood and other filthy
wacte, and passes out ot the building. In the mean time the

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

313

carcass is windlassed to a hight which brings it clear off the
floor and the gammon level with a series of skids, a distance
apart equal to the length of the gammon ; the ends of which
groove into smooth slots. T1 hook and rope being relaxed,
the carcass rests upon the skids, which run parallel the en¬
tire length of the cooling room, at right angles to the dressing
floor. Upon the skids the carcasses are permitted to hang
in close proximity until they are thoroughly cooled and the
fatty parts become hard and firm, which occur as soon as all
animal heat is out.

When the reader bears in mind that of the four score
or more of men engaged, each one has a certain part only,
which he performs, and then passes to the next bullock — one
assisting, some throwing feet, others dragging off heads,
others scraping and cleaning the floor, whilst others are doing
various duties, — and that the space over which the work is
done is more than one hundred feet in length, and that a
score or mere of bu'locks are being operated upon at the
same time, he may rightly conclude that the scene of cattle
dressing is one of entirely to great activity, life, and space,
for one illustration to do ample justice.

When the carcasses are properly cooled, the work of
cutting up may begin. This requires a large number of men
to do the work expeditiously. However, of late years, the
saw, propelled by steam, is largely substituted for the cleaver
and knife. A full complement of saws to do all the different
styles of cuts, comprises five, each of which is operated in a
separ^e frame, and driven by a belt which receives its mo¬
tion, or power, from a shaft and pulley overhead, which is
driven by steam power. These saw frames stand in position
describing a flat-iron, the first one being next to the hanging
carcasses, at the opposite end of the large cooling-room from
which the cattle are dressed ; the other saw frames stand two
and two, just opposite to each other, and behind the first
frame ; still farther back the remaining pair of saw frames are
stationed; trimming tables are near, and also suspended

THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

3 5

platform scales for weighing of each barrel or tierce of beet
care being taken to have as near the same pieces and the
exact weight in each package as possible. Near by the bar-

earhareM rOUgrht’ °f Sa,t Prided to

each. Meats for certain brands and markets are cut in uni-

orm shape and size, and from certain portions of the carcass.

Quite a large number of men are required to operate all
the saws, to bring the carcasses, handle the meat on the
frames, trim on the tables, weigh up and pack in barrels
bring up salt, empty barrels and take away full ones The
quarters of beef are brought one at a timefand thrown upon
the first saw frame where two men adjust the quarter and
pass it up to the saw, which divides flesh and bone in a jiffy
and the pieces pass on to the next saw, and over trimming
^ e\xrund thCn t0 the scaIes> thence to the barrel. S

When the reader remembers that the capacity of the
house from which the illustrations are taken is one thousand
bullocks per day, making four thousand quarters to be
handled and cut within ten hours, he will not hesitate to be¬
lieve that the corps of laborers is large, and that each man
moves quick and steady; no dilly-dallying, no playing no

Ae etnb1SV W°rk_quick’ fast> V* constant is the orL of
the establishment The fat or tallow is trimmed off and ren¬
dered in large tanks, which are heated by steam • th P h -a
are usually salted, packed in large hips or piles £
after draining for a few days and taking salt, they are rolled up
in a snug bundle, tied with a strong cord and are readv P
forward in bulk to the tannery. The entrails are emptied of
their contents, washed, heaved into a tank, and steamed o f
into grease used for mechanical purposes The hoof *!|

horns go to the glue and cotnb-nfake". The slotls^or

manifold, js carefully saved, cleansed, and prepaid for ,rioe
Thus nothing is lost, almost everything is utinr °d P
taming to the bullock. g Il2ed Per‘

A great part of the beef packed is consumed in the lum
her regions, and aboard sailing vessels, whalers, and na^i

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST

317

vessels ; a part is consumed in Europe, for which the best
grade, called India mess, is required. The fleshy part of the
ham is put up in various shapes, but is mostly salted, then
dried ; by far the largest portion of the dried beef seen in
provision and grocery establishments is prepared in this
manner.

It requires a large capital to build and operate a pack¬
ing establishment of great capacity. Inasmuch as the hog and
beef product is, like cotton, a staple article of commerce and
consumption, therefore always in demand, it is not difficult in
ordinary times to hire abundant capital with which to prepare *
the crop of the west, which in these later years has become
immense, especially of hogs ; yet the full capacity of the
country for their production is not now, nor never has been,
taxed or developed to one-half its abilities.

Of the enterprising firm from whose house the illustra¬
tions herein presented were taken, little need be said ; their
meats are well known in most of the world’s markets, and
their manner of dealing with their fellowmen is such as to in¬
spire confidence in their patrons, and a respect bordering on
veneration in their employees, to whom they pay promptly
liberal wages, and among whom the firm, in the year 1872,
is reported to have distributed as a gratuitous present, the
sum of twenty thousand dollars.

One thing worthy of note, which strikes the observing
stranger on entering their establishment — either when it is
in operation or standing idle — is the perfect neatness,
cleanliness, and good order in which everything is kept and
done, and the entire absence of the stench and filth so com¬
mon to similar establishments ; this is not by accident, but by
vigorous persistent attention to cleanliness, to preserve which
many men are constantly employed scraping, scrubbing, and
washing all parts of the house in use. This fact alone should
make a preference for their product over houses run in the
usually unsavory, not to say stinking and filthy style. No
blood or filth is allowed to so much as dry up within the

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

318

house, much less to decompose and fill the air with its
repugnant effluvia. Their success has been great and as
deserved as great.

The first person who engaged in packing pork at Kan¬
sas City, was Thomas J. Bigger in the fall of 1868. This
gentleman is a native of Belfast, Ireland, and came to New
York City for the purpose of preparing meats especially
adapted to the Irish market. After engaging in business for

THOMAS J. BIGGER.

five years in the American Commercial Metropolis, he deter¬
mined to change his base to the source of supply — the great
West. Accordingly after carefully looking over the country
for a suitable, favorable location, he finally selected, and loca¬
ted at Kansas City. After five years residence (and as many
years business), he has no occasion to regret his selection of
location. Although his establishment is not so imposing as
others, yet it is ample for his present business, which ranks

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

319

second to but one in the city. It is a fact of which Kansas
Cityans may well boast, that one of the packing establishments
of which she is so justly proud, is engaged almost exclusively
in preparing meats, especially for a particular foreign market,
to which they are shipped direct. As every market requires
its peculiar cuts, so does the Irish market, and for this Mr.
Bigger prepares his product. During the great panic, when
other packers’ financial arrangements were deranged, his be¬
ing with European houses, was undisturbed. This gave him
substantial advantages of which he was not slow to avail
himself, and the close of that season showed a goodly number
of hogs to have met death and dissection in his establish¬
ment. Mr. Bigger is an affable, unassuming business man,
one who has many friends and whose successful career is re¬
garded with interest and pride by every true Kansas Cityan.
However, there were others who engaged in pork packing
the same season at Kansas City, prominent among whom
was Edward W. Pattison, who is a Kentuckian by birth, but
in early childhood his father removed to Indiana, then a new
heavily timbered country, and engaged in the laborious and
tedious task of clearing up a farm. He was so successful
that he was enabled to give his son Edward the benefit of a
good common school education.

When Mr. Pattison had attained the age 01 seventeen
he engaged in driving live stock to Cincinnati, — the principal
market for that portion of the country, — rwhich business was
continued for ten years. Having acquired a snug capital for
those days, and becoming familiar with the mode of packing
cattle and hogs, he determined to build a packing establish¬
ment in Indiana and try the business upon his own account.
After operating for two years the canal, (his only means of
sending the product to market,) was destroyed, and he moved
to Cincinnati and there opened a commission house for the
sale of provisions, especially the product of live stock ; but
not liking this business he went to Indianapolis and for ten
years engaged in live stock shipping, and, during the winter

320

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

EDWARD W. PATTISON.

seasons packing pork ; occasionally stall-feeding cattle in
eastern Illinois. Returning to his former business he erected
at Indianapolis a packing establishment, of capacity to handle
three hundred cattle or one thousand hogs daily, which was
for that day and generation a large establishment. After
conducting the packing business for five years, he went to
Western Kansas in the fall of 1867, and formed a company
at Junction City, put up a packing house and slaughtered
five thousand head of Texan cattle. The following year he
decided to locate in Kansas City, and joining one or two
associates in business they erected the first packing house of
note ever built at that point; one of capacity sufficient to
handle daily four hundred cattle or fifteen hundred hogs ;
after three years devoted to operating this establishment, he
sold out and purchased land and established four stock
ranches in Ellsworth County, Kansas, upon which he placed
in the fall of 1871 five thousand head of Texan cattle. The

or THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

321

reader will remember that was a cold, stormy winter, one of
wide-spread disaster to cattle men, and Mr. Pattison lost
many cattle although his losses were not so severe as were
those of many other parties engaged in wintering on the
buffalo grass ; nevertheless they were such as determined him
to change his business, accordingly the following summer he
bought and shipped eight thousand head of cattle to market.

The succeeding spring he formed connection with and
took charge of the St. Louis branch of a prominent live-stock
commission house. At the end of one year he opened a
house upon his own account at the National Stock Yards,
East St. Louis. If the reader has read this sketch closely,
he will not doubt that Mr. Pattison ought to be posted
in all the phases of the live-stock business, which is a
truth. He is a high-minded, honorable business man —
one whose experience qualifies him to fill the station he now
occupies to the satisfaction of all reasonable patrons. He is
a man of the kindest impulses, and one who has experienced
every phase of fortune, one whose eventful ever changing
life has led him to entertain the most kindly, charitable feel¬
ings for his fellow man. Indeed he means and deserves well,
and is a man of integrity and perfect rectitude of purpose.

CHAPTER XVI.

FINANCES AND THE CATTLE TRADE - THE BANKING HOUSES THAT

DO THE CATTLE BUSINESS OF THE WEST - THE FIRST NATIONAL

OF KANSAS CITY - THE MASTIN BANK - THE GREAT PANIC OF

1873 - SUSPENSION AND RESUMPTION - HOWARD M. HOLDEN

- THE FIRST NATIONAL AND SAVINGS BANKS, WICHITA - NOAH

EBY & CO., OF COFFEYVILLE - D. W. POWERS & CO., ELLS¬

WORTH.

It has been truly said that money is the sinews of war.
It is equally as true that it is the sinews of the live-stock
trade. The motive power which drives as well as oils the
mighty, yet intricate, system upon which the live-stock com¬
merce, both in the living and the product condition is done.
Immense sums of money are paid annually for live-stock for
consumption and other purposes. But few of the civilized
world’s inhabitants do not daily consume more or less meat,
either fresh or cured, and of the few who do not so daily use
it, poverty, more than a dislike, or lack of desire for it, pre¬
vents them from using it also. Often in single live-stock
transactions as much as fifty to one hundred thousand dollars
changes hands, and transactions reaching from one to twenty
thousand dollars are of almost hourly occurrence in every
live-stock mart of note within the country. It is common in
transacting live-stock business, to borrow large sums of money,
usually upon short time, say thirty to ninety days. Not one
operator, whether he be drover, feeder, or shipper, in a thous¬
and, ever has money sufficient of his own to conduct all his
business operations without borrowing capital. If he had so
much of his own, he would not need to operate at all, for he
could and would live at his ease. The reader may rest

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

323

assured that it is the hope of gain, and not the love of the
business, or the labor connected with it, that impels the oper¬
ator to take the risks, endure the hardsips and perform the
labors which he does. Drovers, shippers, and feeders of cat¬
tle are almost unavoidably heavy borrowers of money. The
banking institutions are the most common source from which
they obtain loans.

In every live-stock mart or section of stock country, be
it great or small, there is, and of a necessity there must be,
one or more financial institutions which are able to supply
the requisite accommodations and make a speciality of ac¬
commodating the stock trade.

As every other great center, or geographical division of
the live stock trade, has its leading financial institutions, so
has the live stock trade of the west and southwest. It is
useless to tell a western reader that that institution was for
many years the First National Bank of Kansas City alone,
for every stock-man knows it ; the officers of this Bank at an
early day saw, as with a prophetic eye, the future greatness,
importance, and the lucrative nature of the live stock trade
and its value as a commerce to such banking houses as se¬
cured it ; seeing this so plainly they put forth early and effec¬
tive efforts to secure it to their Institution and to Kansas
City. At first they had little or no competition, for few
other banking houses cared to take such as they deemed
extreme extra-hazardous discount risks, as they regarded
loans to the uncouth sunburned drovers who claimed to have
herds grazing on the prairie, somewhere out on the uncertain
frontier of civilization. At first but few drovers wanted
money, save for expenses or to pay off extra help on arrival
at Abilene, for they had purchased their cattle on time, paya¬
ble when the cattle were marketed and returns were realized ;
this limited amount needed could in most cases be ob¬
tained in Abilene or Junction City. But as the volume
of trade grew, the necessity for money grew also.
Because the time for payment for their herds in

324

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

whole, or in part, became shortened, it often being at the
time of arrival at Abilene, whether sale of the stock was made
or not. This of course increased the demand for loans, which
soon outgrew the supply at Abilene and other western points,
and in such cases it was the custom of the Illinoisians to
direct the drovers to the First National Bank of Kansas City,
for funds or for eastern exchange to take back to Texas.
Indeed, it was common to advise, and often urge,
returning drovers to take New York exchange in¬
stead of currency, back to Texas, thus avoid the danger
of robbery or permanent loss whilst en route home. Often
those who declined to act upon the advice, rued it when too
late, in several instances they were robbed and some¬
times murdered for their money, whilst going through the
Indian Territory to Texas. The drovers were not slow in
learning what financial institutions were disposed to afford
them needed accommodations. It is true that in a certain
sense, banking with cattle men is extra-hazardous, from the
fact that their herds are distant, often in different States and
counties from the one in which the bank is located, and being
a class of assets that has the power of self-transportation,
could be hujried off in a short time to regions in which force
and the pistol is the only recognized law ; this being the fact,
the bank that affords them discounts must do it as much upon
the drovers honesty and honor, as upon his financial responsi¬
bility ; and this of course requires in the banker a keen,
shrewd judgment of human nature, one who has faith in
humanity, one who does not imagine every applicant for ac¬
commodation to be a thief or swindler, one who is willing to
let go his ducats without exacting a pound of flesh as surety
from next the heart -of the borrower, a banker who under¬
stands the financial necessities of live stock men and the
nature of their business, one who regards the major part of
business men as being honest, and not as ever seeking to
swindle somebody. Such are some of the requisite traits
for banking in the western cattle trade ; such a one has ever

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

325

been at the head of the affairs of the First National Bank of
Kansas City.

It is related that at an early day in the opening and devel¬
opment of the cattle trade, when the personal of the droving
fraternity was but little known in Kansas City, a certain now
well known Major who had just arrived at Abilene with a
large herd of cattle, and needing a loan, after having made
unsuccessful applications at other banking houses of Kansas
City, went into the First National, and, unheralded and without
formal introduction, went abruptly into the President’s room
and bluntly announced in a full audible voice : “ My name is

Major - , I have a herd

of two thousand head of cat¬
tle at Abilene, Kansas, I
want ten thousand dollars
for ninety days ; can I get it
here?” He was asked by
the President if he knew
any one in the city, or if
there was any one who knew
him or that would probably
endorse his note ; to which
the blunt drover frankly re¬
plied “ No.” After talking
a few moments, in which the
banker put various questions
to thedrover, and scanned
his countenance closely as if
he were looking into his in¬
most soul and noting whether its impulses were honest or
otherwise, the drover was dismissed with direction to call
again the next morning. Promptly at the hour designated
the drover went to the banking office ; he had nothing but
his stock, nevertheless he was told to sign a plain note of
hand, upon which he received ten thousand current dollars,
less the interest'. It is needless to add that the note was

FIRST NATIONAL.

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

326

paid promptly at maturity, just as western drovers are in the
habit of doing.

A hundred similar instances might be related where
money has been freely loaned to the drover without other
than personal security. Yet as a rule to which the exceptions
are rare indeed, the notes have been paid on or before matu¬
rity. The First National of Kansas City was established and
opened for business in 1865, with a capital of $100,000, and
has gradually increased in capital and strength, until it now
ranks second to none west of St. Louis. In 1868 it began
to cultivate the acquaintance of, and extend accommodation
to western and southern cattle men. Those at the head of
that institution early saw the importance, magnitude and profit
of the cattle commerce, then just beginning to develope, and
with rare business tact, reached forth a helping hand to aid*
secure, and build up the great commerce, and richly have they
been rewarded for their foresight and efforts. By the year
1870, their business with the drovers had so materially in¬
creased, that they opened an office at Abilene under the able
management of W. H. Winants, a capable and popular young
business man, who has long been honorably connected with
the institution, and by this means secured the lion’s share of
business. Indeed but a small fraction of the banking busi¬
ness of the western cattle trade was done in other financial
institutions. So much has this been the case that it is justly
regarded as a part and parcel historically of the western live¬
stock trade, hence the space devoted to it. It never seemed
too limited in its ability to accommodate drovers and dealers,
and never unwilling to aid liberally any upright man who was
making honest efforts to conduct his business. It has been
influential in a marked degree, in securing and aiding the
various packing establishments found at Kansas City. Among
stock men it has many patrons — from the Rocky Mountains
on the west to the gulf on the south, who regard it as their
best friend and most ready helper.

As may rightly be supposed, when the great panic of

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

327

1873 burst upon the country, this institution, like every other
one that was doing an extended business, felt its fury severely.
For sixty days during that unprecedented stringency, it kept
open and paid more than one million of its obligations. At
the beginning of the panic, of its assets, were live-stock men’s
notes to the amount of over one half million dollars. In nearly
every instance they were met and paid at maturity, although
to do so caused the sacrifice of thousands of cattle upon
ruinously low markets. Indeed it may be said that that insti¬
tution has found, upon the severest of tests, that banking
with live-stock men, has been eminently satisfactory and safe
instead of extra-hazardous, as it appeared to be in the begin¬
ning.

During the prevalence of the panic, which depressed
the live-stock interests of the west more disastrously than
any other branch of commerce, the various marts were the
centers at which the greatest distress imaginable was daily
manifested. Indeed it may truthfully be said, that for many
weeks, to be upon a live-stock market was, to one in sympa¬
thy with the operators, like witnessing a daily calamity. So
depressed was the business, and so severe were the losses
sustained, that whole days would be passed without one be¬
ing able to hear a lively or jovial remark or a smile upon the
universally sad and gloomy countenances of the dealers.
This was emphatically the case upon the Kansas City mar¬
ket during those memorable weeks of financial darkness and
ruin. But when it was known that the First National Bank
was ordered into liquidation by its stock-holders and officers,
who had in the previous sixty days struggled so persistently
that in sheer exhaustion they adopted the course as a means
# of shelter and relief from distress and over-taxation — when
the fact became known among stock men at the yards, a
gloom little less in its density than Egyptian darkness, settled
upon every one, and a sadness such as one experiences on
hearing of the loss of a friend, was depicted upon every coun¬
tenance. Men spoke in inaudible accents, and sorrow was

HOWARD M. HOLDEN, President.

or THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

329

manifested upon all sides. Many could scarce talk of the
event so deeply were their sensibilities touched. It was con¬
ceded by all to be the greatest and crowning disaster of the
many that had occurred. That day was the gloomiest ever
experienced in Kansas City.

After a few brief days during which business men recov¬
ered from the paralyzing shock, a petition went upt numer¬
ously signed to the directors of the bank asking them to
re-open, and pledging aid and support in any reasonable
amount or manner. When, after the elapse of a few weeks,
it was announced that the bank would re-open with its capital
increased to $500,000, a feeling of joy and relief was mani¬
fested on all sides. Now that resumption with double capital
is fully accomplished, the live stock dealers look forward to the
future with buoyant hopes and sure confidence that both they
and the bank will be mutual co-workers to the accomplish¬
ment of a great and good destiny.

The gentleman who has been at the head of this institu¬
tion nearly from its beginning is so widely and well known
among western stock-men, and has been so closely identified
with the developements of the live stock commerce of the
west, that its history would be incomplete without a brief
sketch of him. Howard M. Holden is a native of Massa¬
chusetts, in which State he was reared and educated, the
latter including a thorough practical business training, to
which is due in no small degree his subsequent success in
business. Soon after attaining the years of manhood, not
meeting opportunities to suit him in his native State, he
turned his face toward the west, whither goes so many capable
young men to better their fortune and aid in developing those
great new States. Iowa was the State to which he directed
his steps, and at Des Moines opened a bank which he con¬
ducted successfully for more than three years. Meeting an
opportunity he sold out and removed to Washington in the
same State, and opened a bank which was a branch of the
State Bank of Iowa. This he conducted for six years with

330

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

marked success, but when by national legislation its circula¬
tion, in common with that of all other private banks, was
taxed out of existence, he sold out and came to Kansas City
and bought nearly the entire stock of the First National
Bank, which had a few months before been organized but
had not got fairly underway, and of course had made little or
no progress or impression on the business community. So
soon as he became identified with the institution, he indus¬
triously looked about to increase its sphere of usefulness, by
building up a business. The opening of the cattle trade,
with other new enterprises then developing, afforded superior
opportunities, which he was by no means slow to improve.
The lapse of time was brief before his institution took rank
among the first in the city, and began to make its power felt
throughout an immense area of country, greatly to the ac¬
commodation and benefit of the business men thereof, as well
as to Kansas City.

As the city has grown, and its commerce expanded, his
acquaintance and influence has extended co-equal, and that
invariably to the benefit of the city of his adoption. He is
personally, in every sense, an enterprising, liberal, apprecia¬
tive business man, one who has naturally an endowment
adapted to the business in which he is engaged, and fully
understands. He appreciates the wants, necessities and na¬
ture of live-stock operations, and of live-stock men. His
affable manner and ease of approach, render him popular
with the live-stock dealers. His willingness to aid them
alike, with his easy, smooth manner of declining their requests
when not convenient or desirable, are alike unoffending if not
pleasing. He is a man who possesses rare faculties which
contribute to his popularity and success — one who has hosts
of friends and but very few enemies.

Complaints are rare, indeed, of unfair, oppressive, or
arbitrary dealing ; or of haughty or harsh treatment at the
hands of Mr. Holden. Standing as he does at the head of
the strongest financial institution in the Missouri Valley, his

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

331

power is immense to do great good unto many men, as well
as to his adopted city, and it is not doubted that he will be
equal to his opportunities and so wield the power that his
name will descend to future generations as one among Kan¬
sas City’s greatest benefactors.

For the more perfect accommodation, and the greater
convenience of Kansas City’s constantly increasing live stock
trade, the First National established an office at the stock
yards and placed Mr. Winants in charge. This office has
been of great benefit and an appreciated convenience to live
stock dealers.

The success and profitable results accruing to the First
National in its long experience in banking with live stock
men, has fixed the determination to continue to seek and ac¬
commodate that branch of commerce in the future as in the
past. Its greatly increased capital, of half a million dollars,
will proportionately augment its ability to accommodate a
larger proportion than heretofore of the constantly increasing
demand for financial accommodation. The institution rightly
claims the credit of being, in a financial sense, the founder
and promoter of Kansas City’s live stock commerce. None will
dispute the claim, and none are so historically connected with
the western stock trade, hence this extended sketch.

But it is not the only banking house that has in later
years successfully sought to extend its line of business to
stock-men. The Directors of the Mastin Bank, during the
early part of the year 1873, turned their attention toward
the stock trade. They have been successful to a degree so
highly satisfactory, that at the close of the first year, they de¬
termined to continue. This institution also established a
branch office at the Kansas Stock Yards, under the manage¬
ment of M. R. Platt, which has extended facilities and ac¬
commodations to a large number of stock-men, and its pat¬
rons are increasing daily. In the association constituting
the Mastin Bank are some of Kansas City’s oldest, most
wealthy, and prudent business men, and its entry into the

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

332

vast field of live stock commerce is warmly welcomed by
stock-men. There is ample room and use for its large
capital in the chosen field, without intruding upon the pre-oc-
cupied ground of other financial institutions. The First Na¬
tional and Mastin Banks will in the future be able to extend
ample financial accommodation to the patrons of Kansas
City’s growing live stock mart, and may be regarded as the
central financial institutions — the heart of the immense stock
trade centering there.

Whilst upon each line of road centering at Kansas City
from the west and south, at such points where Southern cattle
are driven for sale and shipment, ot£er and minor financial
institutions are established, which afford accommodations and
facilities, although generally in a comparatively small way,
yet aggregating immense sums. In all cases a round interest
is charged the drover and dealer, who are as a rule scrupulous
about paying up their bank obligations. A breach of faith
upon the part of one would to a great degree effect the credit
of all, so that other than an honest honorable course is as a
matter of self-protection frowned down by all stock-men, and
the one who would attempt to defraud his banker would be
made to feel uncomfortable beyond endurance.

Messrs. Noah Eby & Co., private bankers at Coffeyville,
Kansas, give close attention and liberal financial accommo¬
dation to the live-stock trade centering at that important point.
They have never experienced serious trouble in loaning a
large amount of capital at good rates, or the least difficulty
in securing prompt payment. By a shrewd arrangement
they manage to be posted on what herds of cattle leave Texas
for their point, and the financial standing of the owners.

The Messrs. Eby’s were large and successful live-stock
operators in northern and central Ohio, but on going to Kan¬
sas decided to enter the banking business as in it there was
little competition and a broad and inviting field. They are
well pleased with the chosen vocation, as well as the point
selected. They have contributed largely to Coffeyville’s re-

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

333

cent success as a cattle mart ; and after a full test are satisfied
that banking with western drovers is both safe and very
profitable.

At Wichita, Kansas, the
First National of that
place, was the first bank
which extended accommo¬
dations to stock men. It
entered the field and by
liberal accommodations
and shrewd management,
was able to do an enor¬
mous and lucrative busi¬
ness with stock men, great¬
ly aiding the point to build
up and retain a large cat¬
tle trade. But it did not
have the field to itself but
one year. The second
season The Savings Bank
under able and obliging
management was opened,
FIRST NATIONAL . and from the first had many

warm friends and patrons among the stock men. To the
liberal policy pursued by Wichita’s bankers, as much as to
any other one source, is that point indebted for its wonderful
success as a cattle market and shipping depot.

Among the solid and successful cattle men of Kansas,
none are better known than D. W. Powers, whose residence
is at Leavenworth, but whose principal place of business is
Ellsworth, where he stands at the head of the banking house
which does the financial business of the Kansas Pacific’s cat¬
tle trade. In this banking house are associated his nephews,
who attend to the office duties whilst the principal and senior
member devotes much of the time to his live-stock interests
and operations. Mr. Powers is in every sense a self-made

iS4

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

DAVID W. POWERS.

man. Not liking the restraints of his Kentucky home, at the
early age of sixteen he departed for the State of Virginia and
began life upon his own account. But in after years he re¬
moved to Missouri where he engaged in farming and stock¬
dealing.

In those days there was a great demand for suitable cat¬
tle for oxen, to be used in freighting over the plains, and into
this ox trade he gradually grew until he became one of the
principal purchasing agents of extensive freighters in the
days of “prairie schooners.” He was not long in getting
initiated into the profits of the freighting business, and de¬
termined to start an outfit as large as his means would admit
on his own account ; accordingly, after raking together all
his means, and investing it in wagons, teams, and necessary
outfitting, he found that three teams of four or five pairs of
oxen each was the result, and represented his available

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

336

wordly assets. But not daunted by its limited appearance ;
rather pleased that it was as much, he took in his own hands
one of the ox whips, and, to use the parlance of early
days “ whacked bulls ” many trips to Denver and Salt
Lake. In this business he gradually acquired a start in this
world’s goods ; got something ahead for which he owed noth¬
ing. But this lucrative, although hard business, did not last
very long ; soon the construction, or rather the completion of
the Pacific Railways superceded freighting by ox teams, and
“ prairie schooners ” became institutions of the past ; institu¬
tions about which cling many reminiscences of events inter¬
esting and thrilling. But the departure of the days of over¬
land freighting did not leave Mr. Powers without means, or a
knowledge of good paying business opportunities. In win¬
tering his freighting teams, which in time grew to be large
herds of oxen, he learned the advantages and facilities of Cen¬
tral Kansas as a live stock country. As early as ’66 he bought
many Texan cattle and wintered and fatted them to his great
profit. Having practical experience at so early a date he im¬
proved his opportunity by purchasing four superior loca¬
tions for live stock ranches, one of which is upon Bluff creek,
at its junction with the Smoky Hill river, twelve miles south¬
east of Fort Harker. This ranch is one of four owned by D.
W. Powers & Co., upon which they annually winter about
three thousand head of cattle, and sufficient cow-ponies to
handle the stock. Over two thousand acres of good tillable
land is included in this ranch, of which more than one-fourth
is substantially fenced with posts and boards. A large part
of the enclosed lands are under cultivation, Hungarian, millet,
oats, and corn, being the chief products. Although the up¬
lands furnish unlimited grazing partly of buffalo grass, yet
they deem it prudent, if not necessary, to provide a good sup¬
ply of hay and other food ; with such facilities and good
preparations their wintering operations are uniformly a success,
and heavy losses by storms comparatively unknown. Several
hundred acres are annually sown to Hungarian grass and the

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

337

hay thus produced is of the very best for cattle feeding, it is
easily raised and harvested, the land yielding abundantly.
When properly cut and cured it forms the best and cheapest
feed that can be secured by cultivation. It will keep Texan
cattle thriving and in good heart during the worst winters
known in Kansas.

The ranches are each under the supervision of a fore¬
man, under whose direction are enough herdsmen and other
laborers to conduct business and take proper care of such
stock as the proprietors may purchase. Mr. Powers’ business,
as may be inferred, is large and varied and requires a good
'iusiness man to successfully manage it, this he has shown
himself to be. He has engaged in almost every branch of
business pertaining to live stock, as well as every manner of
handling it, having corn-fed, grazed, ranged, shipped, and
packed cattle, besides for one or two years fed the “ Lo family ”
on the Upper Missouri river country ; in nearly all these de¬
partments he has been successful, and now ranks among
Kansas’ most responsible men. He is an unostentatious,
matter of fact, every day style man, whose solid judgment
and long varied experience, enables him to plan and execute
business operations with unerring skill and certainty ; quiet,
kind, and mild in disposition, he has many friends and an
irreproachable credit. Few men have labored more dili¬
gently and perseveringly for success, and few have been more
amply rewarded for their labors than he.

CHAPTER XVII.

STOCK RANCHING IN THE WEST - WYOMING, NORTHEASTERN COL¬
ORADO, AND NORTHWESTERN KANSAS - SELECTING A LOCATION

AND ESTABLISHING A STOCK RANCH - J. P. FARMER - JOHN HUT¬
SON - A GRAND “ROUNDUP” - COLORADO STOCK-GROWERS*

ASSOCIATION - J. L. BAILY - THE NARROW GAUGE - THE K. P.

RAILWAY - TEXAN CATTLE DEPOT - VICTORIA COLONY - W. K.

SHAEFFER.

The business of breeding and handling live-stock in the
west is one of deep interest. Most young men, no matter
where living or what doing, think and feel that if they were
west engaged in the live-stock business, they would wake up
some fine morning to find themselves wealthy. J ust how it
would be accomplished they scarcely know, but nevertheless
that such would be their happy lot they have a profound con¬
fidence. How the business is conducted they do not know,
yet are anxious to learn. If by perusal of this volume their
information is increased, or corrected, a part of its objects
will have been accomplished.

Cattle or sheep ranching in the west does not differ ma¬
terially in manner from the same vocation in Texas.

There is an immense belt of country along the Rocky
Mountains and extending eastu ard about four hundred miles,
with a length of near two thousand miles which, from its
character, climate, and comparatively rainless seasons, is pre¬
eminently adapted to sheep husbandry and the breeding of
cattle. This vast area is covered with a fine species of grass
known as Buffalo grass, which is equally nutritious in winter
as in summer. Either cattle or sheep not only live -well but
fatten fast so long as they can get an abundance of buffalo

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

339

grass. No matter how cold the air may be, so warming and
nutritious is this grass at all seasons of the year, that cattle
or sheep do not care for hay or other feed in winter.

Running from the mountains eastward are various small
streams of water which falling together form rivers whose
numerous tributaries from either side, water and drain the
whole country sufficiently for stock purposes. Numerous
rivers, such as the Republican, Saline, Solomon and Smoky
Hill rise in the midst of the plains, many miles east of the
mountains, upon whose tributaries many eligible locations for
extensive live-stock ranches can be found.

The great Platte river has unlimited stock country tribu¬
tary to, and drained by it. The North Platte, or black hill
country of Wyoming is excellent for cattle and famous for
its nutritious bunch grasses, which are unexcelled for stock
purposes.

The Territory of Colorado has a deserved fame as a
stock country, to which it would be difficult to add. Within
her bounds are forty thousand square miles of grazing lands
— lands that are well fitted for grazing, and fitted for nothing
else— lands that cannot be irrigated or made available for
agricultural purposes — lands upon which grows the rich buf¬
falo grass, covering its entire surface like a soft velvety car¬
pet. Many extensive live-stock men from all parts have been
attracted to her border. Within her limits can be found im¬
mense cattle and sheep enterprises in successful operation.
Some of the largest operators in cattle are from Texas.

But just what a man may expect to do and endure if he
attempts to establish a live-stock ranch, especially if his capi¬
tal is limited, may be of interest to the reader whose eye and
mind is upon the west with thoughts of making it his home,
and the business of live-stock growing his vocation.

It may be assumed that he has not only decided to go
west but is already there and in the act of locating a stock
ranch. His first care will be to select a location that has liv¬
ing or running water, as much timber and other shelter as

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

340

possible, with a large tract of unsettled and untillable coun¬
try surrounding it. It is important to choose such a location,
that when he has purchased a reasonably sized tract of land
he will own all the water and tillable land in the vicinity for
miles around, otherwise he may have agricultural neighbors
in such near proximity as to interfere with the free ranging
and grazing of his stock.

When the location is finally made one of the usually
first undertakings is the construction of a place of abode,
which is generally a dug-out, an institution in the construc¬
tion of which little lumber and much dirt is used, and the
principal tool employed is the spade. It is simply a covered
excavation on the bank of some creek or ravine, resembling
an outdoor cellar for the preservation of roots and vegetables.
The dirt taken out in excavating the room serves to form the
roof, which is supported by rude strong pieces of timber,
mere round logs or poles. The front is formed of cut sods
laid up like blocks of rock, or is made of split boards or posts
much after the fashion of a stockade ; a flue is cut in the
back wall and often terminates upward with an empty salt
barrel for a chimney stem. The cooking utensils are few and
primitive. The dry condition of the ground renders the dug-
out entirely free from dampness, and not only warm and
comfortable, but entirely healthy.

The dug-out done, the next job that would engage the
attention of the new beginner, is the construction of a corral,
a large, strong, rudely built affair, with a small subdivision
for branding his stock, that is, his purchases, which process
is called counter-branding. When the dug-out and corral
are done, the ranchman brings his herd of cattle and the
necessary number of cow-ponies upon the grounds, and after
branding them, begins the work of getting the stock attached
to and contented with its new home. But this is not a diffi¬
cult task, especially if the weather is fine and feed is plenty.

But let no one delude himself with the idea that cattle
ranching, either breeding and rearing, or only wintering and

OI THI WEST

SOUTHWEST.

341

latting, or handling live stock in any manner peculiar to the
west, is a business' wherein the poetic or sentimental aspects
of life or labor abound to any alarming extent. Indeed, it is
a life and business which, aside from its phase of independent
freedom, has few other aspects than those of diligent labor ;
watchfulness, care, and risk, combined with great self-denial,
privations and lonely hardships. He must be the servant of
his herds, to attend to and provide for their every want.
When the weather is stormiest, and a comfortable seat in a
snug corner by a warm fire would be most congenial to feel¬
ings, and perchance health also, then is the very time the
would be successful ranchman must be out with his herds and
to them give double ordinary attention with extra feed and
shelter. Any one can attend live stock in fine weather, when
the sun shines out mild and warm, and the stock can and will
feed and care for itself ; but when the cold, driving storm
sweeps across the plains piercing the animal world by its
chilling blasts, then is when it requires the “ man to the manor
born,” or one adapted, by nature, and stimulated by a love of
the vocation.

A man must have a natural adaptation and taste lor the
business and the life, to succeed. It is not a vocation wherein
starched shirts, fashionable cut broadcloth, polished boots,
faultless set mustache, or latest style of hair-dressing, will
flourish or scarce be in order for a single day. But long-
legged stogy boots, huge spurs, strong corduroy pants, a
thick colored woolen shirt, a leather belt around the waist,
no suspenders, a Sombrero, or other broad-brimmed hat, a
soldier overcoat, and a pair of heavy blankets constitute the
make up, the necessary habiliments, the usual personal out¬
fit of the practical ranchman, or cow-boy.

And the daily fare, almost of necessity, is meagre, and
of the commonest varieties of food, cooked in the simplest
style of the art, usually by one of the men who knows but
little about culinary matters, and is not over anxious to learn
more than he already knows, be that ever so little. How-

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

342

ever death from dyspepsia is never feared by the ranchman,
for his daily labor and exercise give him a sharp appetite
and a vigorous digestion.

If a young, energetic man, one who desires to make a
name and a fortune for himself, and to be one among the
substantial men of the new and great west, can make up his
mind to endure the privations, hardships, and lonely life of
labor and exposure, incident to a ranchman’s life, there
are great opportunities offered and to be had for the taking
in the broad free west. Lands are cheap, the climate mild,
the natural advantages good and great. The stock with
which to begin is abundant and at reasonable prices. The
process and means of improvement in blood as well as in
numbers, are at hand. The plainest and best of results in¬
variably attend every effort made in crossing Durham bulls
with Texan heifers and cows. An improved animal is ob¬
tained of nearly or quite double the value of the Texan. As
a paying, reliable, certain occupation, there is none that is
more so than stock-ranching ; but it requires time, labor, pa¬
tience, energy, grit, and perseverance, to make the beginning,
and to carry it through to profitable fruition. But there are
few vocations in any new country, or old one for that
matter, that does not require the existence and exercise of
the same qualities in order to achieve success. When it is
remembered that annually more than two hundred millions
dollars changes hands for live-stock for purposes of consump¬
tion alone, it must be potent that the production of the live¬
stock is a staple, money-making business, full as much so as
is the production of cotton.

That the reader may have a glance at the appearance of
some of the sturdy men who have made a success of stock-
ranching in Colorado, the portraits of Mr. J. P. Farmer and
others, with illustrations, are presented.

Mr. Farmer is a son of the Emerald Isle from whence he
emigrated at an early age, and after attaining years of man¬
hood, he went to Colorado in 1861, and established a stock

OF" THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

343

JOSEPH P. FARMER.

ranch on the Bijou, a small tributary of the South Platte,
near which the K. P. Railway has established a station of the
same name. His herd of cattle was very small at the be-
ginningand was Texan stock. Indeed it may truthfully be
said that he began at the foot of the ladder and by industry,
perseverance and determined labor, climbed up round by
round to a substantial annual income and a competence that
might with propriety be desired by any one. This he has
attained by energetic application to business, closely studying
the situation and by taking advantage of the great opportu¬
nities afforded in the new west. He gives his stock business
close personal attention, and constantly labors to render his
herds more numerous and valuable. He now owns a tract of
six hundred and forty acres of land, covering all the water in
the west Bijou, upon which and adjoining lands he keeps a
herd of stock of twenty-seven hundred head of cattle and

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

345

fifty head of horses. Of his cattle one thousand are steers
of three years of age. Of the remaining seventeen hundred
head of cows and stock cattle, the half are grades or half
breeds; that is, a cross between Texan cows and Durham
bulls. Mr. Farmer regards Colorado not only a good cattle
country but as par excellence a good horse country. He
takes great pride and pains with his horses, of which he has
many good strains of blood. He keeps superior blooded
stallions as well as good grade bulls. It is his constant effort
to improve his stock in blood as well as numbers. He feeds
neither cattle or horses, except his saddle ponies, which are
used in looking after the stock. He does not herd his cattle
but designates certain bounds within which the employees
permit the stock to range at will. This manner of holding
stock is termed “out riding” the country.

Mr. Farmer has put upon the Kansas City market some
of the fattest grass fed cattle that has ever entered that mart,
for which he obtained the highest market prices. He is a
solid, matter of fact, every day style man — one who has fine
business judgment, and takes grfeat delight in his live-stock
— one who has laid the foundation wall of a substantial for¬
tune, the full realization of which will be his at no distant
day. He is among that class of self reliant, hardy ranchmen
that have done much to develope and demonstrate Colorado’s
superior facilities and advantages as a stock-growing country,
and by his faithful persistence and enterprise, won and mer¬
ited golden success.

But perhaps no live-stock man in northern Colorado is
so widely known as John Hittson, who went from Tennesse,
the State of his birth, to Texas, and settled in the county of
Pilo Pinto, on the frontier. He located a stock ranch and
began in a small way to gather the nucleus of a stock of cat¬
tle which at one time reached the number of one hundred
thousand head. His brand was put upon eight thousand
calves in the year 1873, but the Indians continuing exceed¬
ingly troublesome, he sold out a part of his stock and his

346

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

JOHN HITTSON.

ranch, and proposes to make his home in Colorado. At the
close of the civil war he began driving largely to Colorado,
where he has annually marketed about eight thousand head
of cattle. In sending his herds from Texas to Colorado
direct, the Pecos trail, which runs through New Mexico and
crosses the Arkansas river not a great distance below Pueblo,
is traveled, instead of the trail via. western Kansas. In or¬
der to facilitate his immense trade, he purchased a ranch on
the middle Bijou, known as the six spring ranch, which is
located at a very eligible point for extensive live stock oper¬
ations, and is near Deer Trail Station on the K. P. Railway.
It was only necessary to own one-half section of land in order
to possess all the water existing for many miles in all direc¬
tions. Upon this tract of land are temporary buildings, cor¬
rals, etc.; but it is his purpose to place thereon a good class
of improvements at an early day, and to make it his perma-

SKETCHES OK THE CATTLE TRADE

348

nent home instead of a mere trading post as heretofore. Dur¬
ing the year 1873, eleven thousand cattle were driven from
Texas and placed upon the ranch to be followed by about
twenty thousand more the succeeding year, and when fitted
and stocked up according to his plans, it will be one of the
best and largest stock ranches in Colorado, if not in the
West.

As has been stated, Mr. Hittson is one of the most widely
known stock men, both in Texas and the west. He is a man
of commanding appearance and great experience — a man
who has lived long on the frontiers and has acquired habits
of bold self reliance. He was largely instrumental in break¬
ing up the predatory thieving incursions from New Mexico
which had become so intolerably frequent in western Texas.
With a party of men, and armed with authority from the Gov¬
ernor of Texas, he went into New Mexico, and recaptured
many thousands of stolen cattle and drove them to Colorado,
where they were disposed of for the benefit of the original
owners. He is a man of great energy and determination,
and one altogether capable of taking care of himself in any
country, and in a land that abounds with opportunities will
make money fast, which, when made, he will freely spend for
the benefit of his friends. Few men are better calculated to
open up and develop a new conntry than he, and yet there
are few men engaged in the live-stock business more social,
jovial and hospitable than John Hittson. Like other exten¬
sive Colorado ranchmen, he outrides the country instead of
close herding his stock. Of course occasionally a small
squad of cattle will escape or stray beyond the designated
bounds whose trail escapes the vigilant eye and Indian
cunning and proficiency of the herdsman or outrider. The
stock will not wander far before it finds such place as will
tempt it to stop if it is not met and turned into some neigh¬
bor’s range. In many instances when great storms occur,
as is sometimes the case, the stock will be driven from its
proper location and scattered over a vast scope of country

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

350

and hopelessly mingled with neighboring cattle which have
been scattered by the same causes. In such cases little or
no effort is made to regather them before spring, when by con¬
certed efforts of all parties interested, a general round-up is
made. This accomplished each ranchman cuts out all bearing
his own brand and returns them to his ranch.

When one section of country has been thoroughly over¬
hauled and the cattle gathered and sent to their proper
ranges, another section is surrounded and another round-up
is made, and so on until the whole country has been thor¬
oughly searched. By this means a great amount of labor and
much hard riding is saved, for a single animal or small number
thereof is hard to drive without much racing which, of course,
fast uses up the cow ponies.

Perhaps in no State or Territory in the Union are the
stock men so wide awake to their interests, or so completely
organized, as in Colorado, where there now exists the leading
State or Territorial organization of stock-growers, the Presi¬
dent of which Association is Joseph L. Bailey, of Denver.
The Secretary, by whose exertions more than that of any
other man, the association was formed, and is kept alive and
in effective beneficial working order, is William Holley, of
Denver, a man of fine energy and abilities, and one who
takes special delight in performing all the duties and kind
offices which his position or opportunities place within his
power. He has rendered great services to the live stock
men and their interests in Colorado, and deserves well at their
hand. The Association and the live stock men’s interest are
largely promoted and benefitted by the Colorado Farmer,
and also the Colorado Agriculturist and Stock Journal , two
neat enterprising weeklies, published in Denver.

The President of the Stock Growers’ Association, J. L.
Bailey, is one of the recognized leading stock men of the
Territory, in whom all stock dealers have the most explicit
confidence. It is at his office that you can see in a brief time
every stock man in Northern Colorado. For a visit to Den-

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

351

ver without seeing and exchanging items with Mr. Bailey, is
not to be thought of, much less practiced, by any stock-grower.
In 1865 he established a number of corrals and named the
place “ Bull’s Head,” and it is there that the largest live-stock

JOSEPH L. BAILEY.

market of the Territory exists. There the various railroads
centering in Denver receive and deliver their live freights. By
fair dealing, and close attention to business, he has gained the
patronage and confidence of his fellowman in a marked de¬
gree, and has acquired a substantial fortune. He has held
various positions of credit and trust, and regards the live
stock interests of the Territory as paramount to all others.

Mr. Bailey hails from Philadelphia, and after spending a
few years in Kansas went to Colorado, and was one of the
pioneers of that rapidly developing and marvelous Territory.
Personally, he is an affable, courteous gentleman of great
business energy and activity, whose fortune is pleasant to

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

352

contemplate. He has ever been closely identified with the
history of Denver, and is regarded on all hands as one of her
most substantial, worthy citizens, and has from the first or¬
ganization of the Stock Growers’ Association held the posi¬
tion of President thereof.

Colorado abounds with many unoccupied locations for
stock ranches ; many millions of acres of its grazing lands
are still untrod save by the migratory .buffalo. Within its
borders may be found locations for vast herds of common cattle
and sheep. Eligible situations abound in great numbers for
fancy or fine stock breeding. Along the base of the moun¬
tains from whence come rivulets of pure cold water, are many
picturesque locations admirably adapted for thoroughbred
stock ranches, where one could spend life in daily view of
craggy peaks and beneath the shadow of lofty pines. It is
more than worth the price of a ride over the Denver and
Rio Grande Narrow Guage Railroad to behold not only the
grand scenery, but also the beautiful lovely landscapes through
which the road passes. Certainly no road in the United
States passes through and near so many desirable situations,
and what will astonish the beholder still more, that compara¬
tively so few are occupied.

Of all the delightsome locations in bewildering profusion
seen on the American Continent, none will excel those found
along the line of the Denver and Rio Grande Railway, which
speeds along the eastern base of the Rocky Mountains, from
Denver to Pueblo, and destined soon to reach the Rio
Grande River, if not the City of Mexico.

To the amateur live stock man, the breeder of thorough¬
bred stock, the country along the eastern base of the Rocky
Mountains, presents the most desirable, charming location,
not only for the business itself but for beautiful, romantic,
healthy homes, also.

Colorado for a Territory is well supplied with Railroads.
The principle one of which is the Kansas Pacific. It was
the first line built and the first one to do a large traffic in live

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

353

stock freights. Under the present practical management,
which is the antipode of of its predecessor, the live stock
traffic is great and flourishing. From the beginning of their
administration dates a new and better era in the live stock af¬
fairs of that line ; an era when a live stock man was recog¬
nized as having rights which a railroad company might, with
profit and propriety, respect ; an era when a business man is
regarded other than legitimate prey, to be ruthlessly crushed
and his substance devoured.

A Railroad official is, in a certain sense, a public servant,
and as such is generally well paid for his services, and when
he has done well his whole duty, does not merit particular
commendation on that account. Nevertheless, it should be
recorded that the present practical management and opera¬
tion of the K. P. Railway is a decided improvement upon the
former. This company has other minor lines leased, the
most important of which is the line from Cheyenne to Den¬
ver, beginning in and passing through a fine stock country ;
and the line lately constructed from Carson to Las Animas
on the Arkansas River. This also begins in and passes
through a fine stock country. Farther east it has other short
branch lines, all of which contribute largely to increase the
business of the main line, especially in live stock freights.

The main line passes for near four hundred miles through
what may be truthfully termed a live stock growing country,
if not such exclusively. Upon either side of this line for an
indefinite distance, most suitable if not superior locations for
live stock ranches can be found. Locations with nice run¬
ning water, timber in limited supply besides other natural
shelter, and grazing in unlimited abundance are to be had for
the taking and occupancy.

In the more easterly portion of the live stock belt, and
within the State of Kansas, the creek and river valleys af¬
ford great abundance of blue stem natural grasses, fur¬
nishing an unlimited supply of hay. Those regions will be
preferred by many, as affording the means to provide against

OP THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

355

the contingencies of storms that may occur during the win¬
ter seasons.

It is upon this belt the railway Company have establish¬
ed, at a point west of Fort Harlcer and distant over two hun¬
dred miles west of Kansas City, its shipping depot for Texan
Cattle, and here annually many thousands are driven, and if
not sold to go otherwheres, are, after being grazed a few
months, shipped eastward. The line enjoys the advantage
of being the only one reaching out into the buffalo grass re¬
gions and terminating, without change, at Kansas City. The
grazing facilities along the line of this road are very good
and great, and so are the facilities of the company for trans¬
porting live stock. No pains are spared to accommodate an
immense live stock commerce, both from Texas, Colorado
and New Mexico.

The cattle from Colorado and New Mexico going east on
this line are provided with a comfortable resting yard at Ellis,
midway distant between Denver and Kansas City.

There the cattle are rested, watered and either fed hay
or grazed on the buffalo grass, as the shipper may elect.
The run from there to Kansas City is easy and two-thirds
of the distance is down a nearly level valley devoid of grades
and sharp curves.

The country for two hundred miles west of Kansas City
along the line of the K. P. Railway, is adapted to agriculture
and mixed husbandry, and better adapted to raising grain and
fatting live stock than to its exclusive growing. The next or
third hundred miles west comprises some fine stock country,
as well as occasional good sections or belts of farming lands.
Within that area and along the line of the railway, extensive
schemes for colonization and settlement of the country are
on foot. As such none are more worthy of note, both from
magnitude of design, extent of country embraced, and liberal¬
ity of plan, than that known as Victoria Colony, the center and
headquarters of which is Victoria Station on the K. P. Rail¬
way. The originator and promoter of this enterprise is Geo.

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

357

Grant, Esq., a retired London (England) merchant, and a
Scottish gentleman of reputed substantial wealth. He has
purchased of the railway company the odd numbered sections
of a tract of land twenty miles in width by twenty-five in
length, each section containing six hundred and forty acres.
The purchase exceeded one hundred and fifty thousand acres
of land. The even numbered sections belong to the govern¬
ment and were subject to homestead and pre-emption. This
tract of land is finely watered, sparsely timbered, and is cov¬
ered with a vigorous growth of buffalo grass upon the up or
rolling lands, and an abundant supply of natural hay on the
broad rich valleys found along all streams in Kansas. A
vigorous little river named the same as the Colony, runs from
west to east through the entire length of the tract, and fre¬
quent tributary creeks put in from either side, thus affording
good drainage and an abundant supply of living stock water.
The soil of both valley and upland is good, rich and deep,
and will produce all the cereals common to the latitude. The
tract of land taken as a whole is exceedingly valuable, espe¬
cially for the purposes of live stock and wool production.
The uplands are gentle, undulating, and the valleys smooth
and wide. The timber, which is abundant for that portion of
the State, is good for fuel and the construction of temporary
buildings only. It is also ample to shelter as much stock as
would depasture the lands. It would be difficult to find in
the State, noted for fine appearing lands, a more beautiful
and withal naturally valuable tract of lands than those of
Victoria Colony. It is unquestionably a healthy country —
no malarial diseases prevail — indeed no swamps or pools of
stagnant water exist. The winters are mild, the climate tem¬
perate and sunny. The tract of land lies on either side of
the railway, which company is disposed to extend every facil¬
ity to encourage and aid the enterprise.

Although the soil is ample for the production of all
needed grains and vegetables, yet it is evident upon reflec¬
tion, that the growing of cattle and horses as well as sheep

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

359

and wool, will yield the greater profit. This is evident for
various reasons, among which might be mentioned its dis¬
tance from market, the uncertainty of rainfall, which is always
ample but often occurs at such times of the year as prove
too late to save the crops of grain, especially corn, from
drouth ; although wheat, oats, rye, barley, millet and hunga-
rian grass can be grown with a reasonable certainty every
year. Again, the lands are already well and closely set with
buffalo grass on the uplands, and blue stem grass in the val¬
leys, and stock can be kept in good condition of flesh during
the entire year with but little greater expense than that of
herding.

Cattle can be cared for the entire year, when held in
moderate sized herds, for two dollars per head per year, and
sheep in proportion. Indeed the State of Kansas offers no
finer location for profitable, easy and abundant production
of mutton and wool, than at Victoria. The dry nature of the
soil, its freedom from mud and standing water, the purity and
dryness of the atmosphere, the excellence and adaptableness
of the buffalo grass to the wants and nature of the sheep,
both in winter and summer, all conspire to make it pre-emi¬
nently a sheep and wool growing country unsurpassed. Hor¬
ses and mules can be easily and profitably raised at an annu¬
al expense scarce above that of cattle.

It is believed that the man who gives his exclusive at¬
tention to live stock, and particularly sheep, will grow rich
much quicker than he who devotes his exclusive attention to
farming ; of this there can be no intelligent question. Al¬
though an energetic agriculturist will soon make himself com¬
fortable and above want by tilling the soil.

The purchase of Victoria Colony Lands has been con¬
summated scarce more than a year, yet their proprietor has
made commendable progress in preparation for extended ex¬
periments with all kinds of live stock. To this end he has
imported many thoroughbred sheep, cattle, horses, and hogs,
besides buying largely of superior blooded animals both in

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

361

Canada and the United States, with which he is placing Tex¬
an heifers and proposes to place Mexican ewes and native
mares.

Among the rare noticeable importations are a number
of black hornless bulls of pure Galloway blood, which have
all the beef qualities of the durham, maturing fully as early,
and possessing in addition habits of industry, and are ex¬
tremely hardy and thrifty. They are expected to prove a
valuable acquisition to stock growers on the plains. Among
his extensive importations of thoroughbred sheep are some
remarkably fine specimens of Shropshires, Leicester and Lin-
colnshires. The latter are very superior and of great prom¬
ise in the future. Besides the above he has put upon Victo¬
ria Lands, several thousand sheep of common or native
blood, and proposes to test thoroughly, the adaptation of the
locality for wool and mutton growing.

No intelligent man at all cognizant of the situation,
doubts for a moment, the successful issue of the experiment.
It requires no great tax of the imagination to forecast the
situation of affairs at Victoria Colony half a score of years
hence, when the lines of industry as well as the kinds of
stock, that experiments now being made will have proven to
be the most lucrative and best adapted to the locality, shall
have been pushed into the highest development, the situation
will admit of, which will in no respect be inferior to that of
any other point or section.

It is easy to foresee that a happy, prosperous people,
rejoicing in their new homes, abounding with all comforts and
many luxuries of life, will in future time gratefully remember
the man through whose munificence and enterprise they were
induced and enabled to enter Victoria Colony. Mr. Grant
has undertaken a laudable, and in a certain sense, a benevo¬
lent enterprise, one in which great permanent good can, and
doubtless will, be done many of his countrymen who through
his aid and encouragement will be assisted and directed to a
land in which a home of their own and manly independence

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

363

can be attained in a goodly country beneath a temperate,
healthy clime, where the most ordinary economy and industry
will bring the fatness of “ a land of milk and honey.” It is
no mere land speculation upon his part, although his own
interests are not lost sight of, but it is an honest commenda¬
ble effort to so invest, and use a large capital in such a man¬
ner as will confer substantial lasting benefits upon a large
number of worthy, enterprising persons who unaided could
never raise themselves above positions of dependence, much
less to the ownership of lands and homes of their own. No
young able-bodied Briton who has energy and ambition to do
something worthy and good for himself can fail to better his
condition materially by joining Victoria Colony. Its founder
is animated by high motives and with his great wealth is pre¬
pared and willing to do a great good work for a large number
of his countrymen. He is like many of his own isle, a lover
of finely bred live stock. He demonstrates by his liberal
purchases of elegant thoroughbreds in this country and
Canada, as well as by his importations of superior animals,
his entire willingness, his earnest purpose, to enable his colo¬
nists to have the advantage and benefit of the best obtaina¬
ble strains of blood, and all this, too, at little or no expense
to the colonists. It is his purpose to substantially aid all de¬
serving colonists to establish flocks and herds of their own
at an early day. Certainly no greater advantages, in fact
none half so great, has ever been offered the sturdy Briton
to seek and establish a home of his own beneath a sunny sky
upon the richest of lands, where obstacles are so few, the
advantages so great, the aid so substantial, and so easily ob¬
tained, as are offered in Victoria Colony. Its founder and
proprietor is a shrewd business man and knows what he is
doing, and although the remainder of his life might have
been spent in ease and luxury without knowing an unsupplied
want, yet he prefers to use his fortune in developing an en¬
terprise the intent and inevitable result of which cannot be
other than substantial benefit to all who choose to avail them-

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST. ^65

selves of his magnificent scheme and investment in Kansas
lands.

Mr. Geo. Grant is a quiet, retiring, dignified gentleman,
whose kind, hospitable manner inspires one alike with respect
and confidence. But a few brief hours in his presence will
suffice to impress one with his courteous manhood and his
keen appreciation of the really good and deserving, as well
as how completely his heart is rapt up in the welfare and
success of his colony.

The belt of country in which Victoria Colony is located,
is for a hundred miles in width from east to west, and stretching
across the State of Kansas, regarded as unsurpassed for
stock purposes, and has attracted some of the shrewdest and
closest observing ranchmen from all sections of the Union,
even from far famed California. Among whom is Mr. Shaeffer,
who at the full years of manhood went from Ohio, his native
State, to California. After successfully trying his fortune at
mining, packing or freighting, he finally settled down and
established a live stock ranch in Northern California. But
after a brief time he began driving live stock to Idaho, also
to Nevada, which he followed with success for four years ;
then after operating in quartz mines for a short time, he turned
his face eastward, after spending nineteen years on the Pacific
slope, and selected central Kansas as a desirable place where
he could engage in his favorite vocation — that of stock ranch¬
ing. However, before he made a final location, he went to
Texas, and from that State drove a large herd of cattle via.
the Staked Plains, Ft. Sumner, Ft. Union, and the Ratton
Mountains to Nevada, where after a lapse of eighteen months
from the day he started after the herd, he sold it at $52, gold,
per head. Of course this operation made money — his ven¬
tures always do, for he directs his affairs with consummate
skill, and is seldom at fault in judgment about when, where,
and how to plan, begin and execute a speculation, or live
stock operation. Indeed he is often termed by the unobserv¬
ing and unthinking, the lucky operator. At all events, sue-

366

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

WILLIAM K. SHAEFFER.

cess seems to crown his every move. He seldom fails to
make money upon everything he handles.

After looking over and experimenting in various parts of
of central Kansas, he selected and purchased a location
and established his ranch. It is a tract of about four
thousand acres of land, situated upon the Saline river, and
one or more of its tributaries. Here he has running salt, and
fresh water, besides divers springs affording an unfreezing
supply of water. Timber and abrupt bluff lands constituting
shelter in abundance. Upon the Valley lands of his pur¬
chase an unlimited amount of hay can be annually put up,
costing only the cutting and labor of saving it. But upon
the uplands the buffalo grass abounds in the greatest profu¬
sion and of the most luxuriant growth.

Upon this ranch he annually winters about twenty-five
hundred head of cattle, and keeps about forty head of ponies,
which he uses for saddle purposes. The cattle are fed noth-

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

368

ing other than the buffalo grass, unless it is when a protrac¬
ted storm occurs, and then hay is given them, often only to
be tossed about and played with, instead of eaten. So long
as the stock can get the half of a supply of buffalo grass, al¬
though they may have to root in the deep snow to get it,
they care but little for hay be it ever so good an article there¬
of. Of the horses none are fed grain, save those that are
under the saddle daily.

For location and all essential ‘conditions and surround¬
ings, Mr. Shaeffer’s ranch is a model, unexcelled for exten¬
sive stock handling. He does not put forth any effort to raise
cattle or horses, but buys fresh driven Texan cattle every
season, and after wintering, grazes them the following sum¬
mer upon the range, of which there is an immense supply,
until fat, then they are sold and the operation repeated. In
this line of business he has been successful, and has made no
losses, for his plan takes little or no risks, and by purchasing
his cattle when they are thin, and consequently very cheap,
he cannot but make a profit by increasing their flesh and con¬
dition, then selecting a propitious time to place them upon the
market, he never fails to get remunerative prices ; often very
profitable sales are made. He estimates by actual expense
accounts kept, that it does not cost him above two dollars
per head, actual outlay, to winter a bullock and fat it fit
for the New York Market. It is easy to compute the tran¬
saction. If he buys, say, 2500 head of fresh-driven Texan
cattle at two cents per pound or $20 per head, they amount
to $50,000 ; to this add $2 per head expense of holding, or
$5,000; also add $10,000 interest on money invested ; then
allow $2,500 for supplies in camp, loss and incidental ex¬
panses. The fatted herd has cost $67,500, but it is worth
three cents per pound and will weigh 1250 lbs. on an average,
and bring $37 50 per head, making a total, for the herd, of
$93. 75°. a net gain of $26,250 ; or . something near fifty
per cent, on the capital invested. It is safe to count on
receiving one cent per pound gross advance on purchase

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

369

price, when the cattle are made fat. Texan cattle of proper
age become very fat upon the natural grasses of central Kansas,
especially after having been wintered. He keeps four men
at an expense of twenty-five dollars per month wages, board
not included, who are sufficient to attend twenty-five hundred
cattle for the stock is neither herded or lotted, but simply
kept within bounds by outriding the country, and the time
is brief before the stock becomes contented and “homed" to
the locality and lose all disposition to ramble or stray off.
Stock held in this manner does far better than if close herded and
confined nightly in corrals. Mr. Shaeffer is a man of supe¬
rior judgment on all matters pertaining to live stock opera¬
tions and is a man of convivial jovial habits ; one whom suc¬
cess does not elate ; one who has many warm friends among
stock men. Who does not if but fortunate in his operations,
and the name of successful is bestowed upon him ?
one set of yards and one market. There are, undoubtedly,

It is a proposition upon which cattle feeders differ,
whether it is most profitable to full feed Texan cattle on
grain or “rough them through,” or “range” them upon
the plains during winter and fat on the grass the succeeding
summer.

The advocates of each method can offer substantial, and
to their own minds, conclusive reasons in support of their
favorite method.

We apprehend that locality is the key to the correct so¬
lution of the problem.

Very profitable operations are made corn-feeding Texan
cattle, when the feeder is a practical man and thoroughly un¬
derstands his business, and gives it his daily attention. Such
a cattle feeder is George Groves of Williamsville, Illinois.

At Chicago, Illinois, is the largest and most complete
live stock market in the Union. It is an unanswerable argu¬
ment in favor of union and concentrated effort, whereby three
quarters of a million of cattle and nearly five million hogs,
with other live stock in proportion, are annually brought into

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

370

great advantages, both to buyer and seller, gained by this
concentration. Perhaps at no other point in the United States
are so many commission merchants located as at Chicago.
Many of them do almost a fabulous business in the aggregate,
and most of them are good live stock men of excellent judg¬
ment, and well adapted to the business in which they are
engaged. In some cases they are of the most substantial
cattle men of the country — feeders, grazers, traders, and

GEORGE GROVES.

shippers. Of suoh is Mr. Groves, senior of the firm of
Groves Brothers, who is known in central Illlinois as a large
land owner, a successful farmer, an excellent feeder, and a
genuine good cattle man. He is a native of Pennsylvania,
but came with his father to central Illinois at the age of four¬
teen. This occurred in the year 1836, when that State was
comparatively new and lands therein cheap. He early saw
and believed in the future value of the rich soil of those re-

or THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

371

gions, and spared no honorable effort to acquire a goodly
number of broad fertile acres, which he owns at the present
time. He began life poor and worked himself gradually into
the possession of a princely estate. From his earliest man¬
hood he has been engaged in handling live stock — seldom
shipping, but annually feeding, often several herds, or lots of
cattle and hogs. His reputation as a superior and successful
feeder, is unexcelled, especially as a feeder of Texan cattle.
Some of the finest and best fatted corn-fed Texan cattle that
were ever received at Chicago, were from his farm. Few
men understand handling and feeding that class of stock
better than he. Indeed, no one will excel him as a judge of
that class of stock.

In the fall of 1872, he decided to go to Chicago and es¬
tablish a commission house for the sale of live stock, greatly
to the pleasing of his many friends, and to the cattle dealers
of central Illinois, to whom he is well known. As a man, he
is plain, old-fashioned, matter of fact in style, and possesses
a cool, correct judgment, with unquestioned integrity of char¬
acter ; besides, he is substantial, reliable, brimful of “stock
sense,” and altogether responsible. He bids fair, at no dis¬
tant day, to rank among the most successful of Chicago’s
live stock men.

CHAPTER XVIII.

STOCK AND WOOL GROWING IN NEW MEXICO - ALSO IN SOUTH¬
EASTERN COLORADO - PEDRO C. ARMEJO - CHARLES GOOD¬
NIGHT - WINTERING CATTLE ON THE UPPER ARKANSAS RIVER

— DENNIS SHEEDY.

We have formerly had much to say concerning men and
live stock interests of Texas, the Northwest, Kansas and
Northeastern Colorado ; but we now propose to devote brief
space to New Mexican and Southeastern Coloradoan live
stock matters.

New Mexico, although comprising an area of more than
1 2 1 ,000 square miles, and a population of near one hundred
thousand, and although it is now knocking for admission as a
State into the Federal Union, is comparatively little known.
This arises largely from the fact that no line of railroad has
yet penetrated that Territory, nor until within quite a recent
date has one been operated to a point sufficiently near to
render the journey other than one of great hardship, requir¬
ing weeks of time traveling by tedious and uncomfortable
modes of conveyances, over a monotonous, dreary country,
under a burning sun. Now the speedy locomotive and luxu¬
rious car carries the tourist nearly to the northern line of the
Territory, and before many summers wax and wane, one or
more lines will penetrate the heart of the heretofore secluded
land of the Aztecs.

The Territory, with other domain vast in extent, was
acquired by conquest and treaty with- Old Mexico, as the
mother country is termed, in contradistinction to the New
Mexico. Long before it came under the jurisdiction of the
United States its adaptability to live stock production, espe-

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

373

dally sheep husbandry, attracted many persons pastorally
inclined.

At the time of its conquest, certain distinctively Castilian
families had made it their home, and were engaged in wool¬
growing upon an extensive scale. The leading families did
not lose but rather augmented their prestige after the change
of rulers, and ultimately became in a sense, dukes and prin¬
ces of the land, having under and dependent upon them many
thousand human beings of the lower order. Many of whom*
under a system of peon laws, were but a few removes from
actual slavery — a system of customs and laws whereby a per¬
son could sell his services and himself for a stated period of
time. Long before the stipulated time expired, neces¬
sities, real or imaginary, would arise, and an extension
of the peonage would be fixed for a small sum in hand, per¬
haps a trifle in amount. So from year to year the person
would be bound to work for his master who controlled, ordered,
and drove him as absolutely and as remorsely as though he
were — as practically he was — a veritable slave. But the new
order of things arising from this has done away with peonage
in New Mexico.

The average New Mexican is a bad mixture of Spanish,
Indian, and sometimes negro blood, producing in that warm,
sunny clime, a degenerate, unenterprising, go-easy specimen
of the genus homo , who is in his seventh heaven when he can
get enough to eat and an opportunity to “trip the fantastic
toe ” nightly at the fandango, to lascivious music, in com¬
pany with maidens to whom virtue is an unknown and unre¬
spected grace, and to whom modesty is a lost sensibility.

The race, as a whole, is, and has been for centuries, at a
standstill. The same rude agricultural implements that their
remote ancestors used they cling to tenaciously, resisting all
innovations of improved machinery. The wooden plow ;
mowing hay with a hoe ; the ox harnessed or yorked by his
forehead; grinding done by hand; transportation on little
stupid donkeys, scarce larger than a New Foundland dog, are

374

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

seen everywhere. In short, a population almost, if not abso¬
lutely, impervious to progress, either in business, science, ed¬
ucation or religion. Their daily fare coarse and meagre;
their necessities few ; their ambitions none.

Far different is the case with the families of pure Castilian
blood, who own most of the livestock found in the Territory.
Sheep constitute the principal live stock interest, and in
numbers aggregate many millions ; and in value, as in num¬
bers, they out-rank cattle and all other classes of stock.

Along the water-courses a sparse and stunted growth of
reddish prairie grass affords a limited supply of hay ; but as
there is good grazing the entire year, hay is not extensively
made or needed. Of that made, by far the greater portion is
mown with the common field hoe. Imagine a troupe of men
going to the hayfield with hoes in their hands, and ask, can
this be in the United States and in the Nineteenth Century?

The uplands and plains are covered with gramma grass,
with an occasional tract abounding in the buffalo grass peculiar
to Colorado. The gramma grass is superior food for sheep, and
in that winterless clime can always be had in abundance.
But a small portion of country is under cultivation, and that
along the streams in the valleys where irrigation is practica¬
ble and easy. The upland, embracing by far the largest por¬
tion of the territory, is used, if at all, only for grazing pur¬
poses. It belongs principally to the general government.
Some large tracts are held under old Spanish or Mexican
grants made prior to the Mexican war of 1848 and confirmed
by treaty of cession.

Upon the vast, almost limitless plateau, range countless
thousands of degenerated sheep, in flocks of three thousand
or less, cared for by one person, a “greaser,” accompanied and
aided by one or more sagacious, powerful shepherd dogs,
which maintain a perpetual vigilance over the flock. With
the speed of a racer they go to obey the command of the
shepherd, and turn the flock as directed. The dogs are
reared with the sheep, sucking a ewe, in puppyhood ; and the

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

375

flock is lost without its attendant dog and guardian. Woe
betide the unlucky coyote that essays to least on mutton 1 If
the shepherd dog is apprised of its presence he will speedily
annihilate his wolfship. They are very strong and rugged,
and as brave as they are muscular. They are an indispensi-
bleadjunctof sheep husbandry in New Mexico. A “greaser”
shepherd will sigh to lose his friend, groan if his wife or child
dies ; but if his dog is lost by death, his grief is overwhelm¬
ing and his anguish cannot be assuaged. The flocks are en¬
closed in corrals at night, the shepherd sleeping with them,
whilst the faithful, vigilant dogs maintain constant guard out¬
side the corral. The corrals are located in the centre of a
large grazing district, and as many as eight, ten, or twelve
flocks, of three thousand each, nightly rendezvous in the same
centre going .out in different directions in the morning. The
grown wethers are kept in separate herds from the stock
sheep and lambs, and are usually sent out to the most distant
herding posts. The fare of the shepherd is very common,
coarse and scant, being a little coarse meal, goat’s milk and
kids flesh, all served in the rudest manner and highly seas¬
oned with native pepper used in every dish by Mexi¬
cans. Onions are the favorite vegetable, which grow
to wondrous size and in the greatest profusion. Flocks
aggregating thirty thousand are under the general con¬
trol and supervision of an overseer, or major domo> who
is required to look after the general interest of the whole and
see that all needed supplies are provided. He receives about
$25 per month, the shepherds from $10 to $15 per month in
specie. Your Mexican to this day has no use for the green¬
back, and cannot see any value in a National bank note, hence
will accept nothing but gold or silver coin.

The “Greasers” are the result of Spanish, Indian and ne¬
gro miscegenation, and as a class are unenterprising, energy¬
less and decidedly at a stand-still so far as progress, enlighten¬
ment, civilization, education, or religion is concerned. The
rudest and most primitive modes of life and of making a Iiv-

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

376

ing, sucn as tneir ancestors practised five hundred years since,
are entirely satisfactory to the present generation, and they
look with profound, suspicious indifference upon any pro¬
posed innovation of ideas, modes or implements of husbandry,
such as mark the advancement of progressive nations ©f the
nineteenth century. Such being the situation but little pro¬
gress in breeding superior blooded stock is not to be found
or expected in New Mexico.

It is claimed that their flocks of sheep are . descended
from imported Spanish merinoes. There is nothing in their
general appearance or fleece that would go to substantiate
the assertion. But upon the other hand, the general appear¬
ance, the fleece, and the form of the Mexican sheep, would in¬
dicate that its relation to the pure blooded Spanish merino
of the northern State, is as distant as the era of creation.
Nevertheless there is one strong argument in favor of the
proposition, that is, that when the Mexican sheep is crossed
with the pure blood merino, the offspring will approach the type
of the pure blood at an astonishingly rapid rate. Indeed it
is claimed that a far superior flock of sheep can be secured
by the first cross as above, than from a similar cross with
the common coarse wool natives of the north. So sat¬
isfactory have the results proved to those who have tried
on a large scale the crossing of Spanish merino bucks
and Mexican ewes, that it is confidently claimed and asserted
that a superior sheep for the western plains can be pro¬
duced in this manner over any other. It is claimed that the
Mexican ewe, like the Texan cow, when crossed with pure
bloods, transmits its hardy constitutions, and above all
its energetic industry to the offspring, which inherits the
form, size, appearance and condition of the male. We believe
it is a conceded fact that for ranching in Colorado and west¬
ern Kansas, that Mexican ewes as a base, are superior to all
others. This may and perhaps does arise from the fact that
Mexican sheep are cheap, hardy, industrious in seeking
food, and perfectly adapted to living on the grass the year

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

377

round without other food or any special care or attention
other than to prevent their destruction by wild animals.

Many thousand ewes can be had for from fifty cents to
$1.25 per head, taken at the Mexican ranches, and can be
bought delivered in Colorado at $2.00 to $2.50 per head.

An average flock of wethers will weigh about seventy
pounds gross, and dress about thirty-five pounds of mutton,
which, it is claimed, is superior in flavor, juicyness and ten¬
derness, to northern mutton.

8EN. PEDRO C. ARMEJO.

A limited number of families, mostly pure Castilians,
have absorbed and now own nearly all the flocks of New
Mexico. Prominent among the number is the Armejo family,
whose flocks are estimated to aggregate fully two hundred
and fifty thousand head of sheep.

The number of “Greasers” required to take care of, herd,
shear, and mark this great number, is over one thousand

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

37*

who, allowing five persons, women and children, to be de¬
pendent upon and belonging to each man employed, would
aggregate six thousand human beings, and would constitute
a city of pretentious numbers.

The late Pedro C. Armejo, a young, enterprising gen¬
tleman of Albuquerque, opened up a considerable trade in
sheep with Colorado, driving from ten to twenty thousand
head annually. There was no trouble in disposing of the
flocks to the mining towns and cities, or to parties desiring to
embark in wool-growing in Colorado. Sen. Armejo had es¬
tablished a lucrative trade, one that afforded bright prospects
for great profits. In an evil hour he perished. Charity for
the living and pity for the dead alike forbid us to mention the
cause of his untimely death. He was a young man of enter¬
prise and the possessor of a bright, vivacious intellect, whose
future prospects, so far as wealth could go, were as golden as
the heart could have wished.

He was thoroughly educated at St. Louis, Mo., and
when through with college, went to New York and took a
position in a Wall street banking house for the sole purpose
of securing a complete practical business education. At the
end of four years he returned to New Mexico and enthusi¬
astically engaged in wool-growing and droving to Colorado.

Flocks of Mexican sheep shear, on an average, about
two pounds of wool, which sells in Philadelphia for twenty
to forty cents per pound owing to its cleanliness and fineness.

As no expense whatever is incurred on account of feed,
and but little for labor, the business of wool growing is very
profitable in New Mexico ; it will be tenfold more so when
full-blooded Merinos are thoroughly introduced.

The wool is baled much like cotton, and freighted with
ox teams to the railroads in Colorado, and shipped principally
to Philadelphia.

Certainly no finer opening exists in the West than in
Southern Colorado and New Mexico in wool growing. To
one whose tastes, habits and bent of mind will permit him to

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

379

embark and continue in sneep husoandry, a sure reward and
great wealth is almost certain.

There are, comparatively, but few cattle in New Mexico.
Although it is in many respects a good cattle country, yet it
is better adapted to sheep. There are, however, some large
stocks of cattle. It is claimed they do full as well as in Texas.

That portion of the Territory of Colorado lying east of
the Rocky Mountains has a natural subdivision constituting
two distinct districts. This natural line of separation is the
water-shed, or grand divide, between the waters flowing into
the Platte, Republican and Smoky Hill Rivers, and the waters
that flow into the Arkansas River. It starts out from the
mountains just north of Pike’s Peak, and is traceable almost
to the State of Missouri.

That portion of country south of the divide constitutes
Southeastern Colorado, and as a distinct section deserves
more than passing notice. It is watered by the Arkansas
and numerous tributary rivers and creeks, and, as a whole, is
one of the finest, if not the finest, live stock country on the
Continent. The winters are very mild, the air pure, the cli¬
mate healthy, the grass fine ; in short, nature seems to have
exhausted herself in favorable combinations in its make-up.
In this district are located many of Colorado’s grandest live
stock enterprises, including both cattle and sheep. It is a
question upon which the present population is greatly exer¬
cised, and party lines are closely drawn, whether it is better
for sheep or cattle, and which interest shall control and pos¬
sess the country. An incipient war has been waged between
the two factions for several months, which has greatly hinder¬
ed the development of the country. But all matters of dis¬
pute are likely to be speedily and amicably settled. The
region is penetrated by the Kansas Pacific Railway, the
Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe and the Denver & Rio
Grande Railroads. The two latter lines will soon be extend-
into New Mexico. Southeastern Colorado is more nearly
stocked up to the full capacity of the country with cattle and

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

380

sheep, than any other quarter of the territory ; but yet there
is abundant room for more. The original stocks were from
Texan cattle and Mexican sheep, upon the former of which
have been crossed Durham bulls, and upon the latter Merino,
bucks ; in both instances with the most satisfactory and pro¬
fitable results.

Nearly the entire Arkansas river front for a distance of
one hundred miles east of Pueblo, is already taken for stock
ranches. Many young men of energy and determination
have successfully established themselves and laid broad found¬
ations for great wealth in southeastern Colorado, some of
whom have already attained creditable success and distinc¬
tion. Among the latter may be named Charles Goodnight,
resident six miles west of Pueblo City, upon the banks of the
Arkansas river, near the foot of the mountains. He is a na¬
tive of Illinois, from which State, at the age of eleven years,
he went to the northwestern frontier of Texas, where he re¬
mained until years of maturity. He was born upon a farm
and was reared to a full knowledge and experience of the hard¬
ships and toils peculiar to that vocation. That fitted him, to
no small extent, for the privations and labors incident to a
wild frontier life— such as was inevitable to a life in that sec¬
tion of Texas — which was subjected to the predatory and
bloody incursions of hostile Indians upon one side and
bands of lawless Mexican banditti upon the other, rendering
life and the prosecution of business a continual hazard — a
perpetual excitement. But young Goodnight was determined
to do something to raise himself from poverty’s humblest
rut, and was prepared to forego the comforts and luxuries of
life and endure any necessary privations and hardships that
lie in the path to honorable success and fortune.

After being in Texas a short time he in company with
another young man, took a herd of four hundred and thirty
head of cattle, mostly cows, to keep for a term of nine years,
upon the shares, i. e.: One half the increase to be divided
and branded annually. At the close of the first year they

OK THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

381

had raised omy sixty-four calves all told, the half of which was
thirty-two, and the half of that was si-xteen calves, worth
about three dollars per head. The result was decidedly dis¬
couraging, and the young men were disposed to give up the
enterprise, but upon being encouraged by their patron they
determined, although they did not have a cent in money, to
see the contract through.

So mounting their cow ponies, of which they had but
one each, they again went to the range determined to wrest
success from dame fortune, and to carry out the contract to
the letter, whether it proved profitable or otherwise.

It was a turning point in Mr. Goodnight’s life — one that
well illustrates the firm determination of character that has
marked his career, and has contributed to his honorable, fu¬
ture success. At the end of the stipulated term, the young
men had as their share of the increase, including some small
purchases, four thousand head of cattle worth $8.00 per head,
aggregat‘ng $32,000 in value. His prospect to secure an
ample fortune speedily was all that he desired.

But about this date the civil war began, which dashed to
earth the bright prospects of the young stockmen. The
Confederates took large herds of their stock, and of course
paid the rightful owners thereof nothing for it. After serv¬
ing a few months in the Federal ranks on the frontier of
Texas, Mr. Goodnight decided to gather his stock and move
it out of the State. Accordingly he started his herds across
^the Staked Plains and drove them into New Mexico and
Southern Colorado, where, to his happy surprise, he met cat¬
tle buyers to whom he sold out at very remunerative prices.

Mr. Goodnight’s first venture as a drover was not only
of itself a success, but it developed to him a channel or
method through and in which he decided there was a golden
harvest for him in the immediate future.

Therefore he lost no time in returning to Texas, where,
with the proceeds of his Colorado sales, he was enabled to
purchase the entim stock of his former partner, consisting of

TOrAHI/ES GOODNIGHT

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST. ^83

seven thousand head of cattle. This purchase was made of
his former patron instead of partner.

As soon as the stock could be gathered it was put upon
the trail for Southeastern Colorado. But the journey was
not made without danger, exposure and severe Indian fight¬
ing almost daily whilst crossing the Staked Plains, a distance
of about four hundred miles. In one of these hostile attacks
the Indians killed his partner and captured a large number of
the cattle.

With the remaining herds Mr. Goodnight sorrowfully
made his way, through daily dangers and untold privation
and hardships, into Colorado.

The losses en route by Indians were so great that the
advanced prices realized in Colorado for the remainder of the
herds did not cover entirely first cost of the stock.

N ot daunted by the bitter, sorrowful experiences of the
previous year, Mr. Goodnight renewed and continued the
business of droving for the three succeeding years, realizing
a profit of $104,000, a part of which belonged to the heirs of
his former partner. The year of 1871 he operated in connec¬
tion with Mr. Chisolm, and cleared $17,000. He has retired
from droving, and two years since put a stock of cattle upon
his ranch amounting, in cost value, including $3,000 paid for
Durham bulls, to $26,650.00. At the end of two years, by
actual record kept for business purposes, the operations
stand: Value of cattle now on hand, $27,950; amount real¬
ized from sales of stock, over and above the expense of
keeping the stock two years, $17,925 ; which, added to pres¬
ent value of stock, aggregates $45,875 ; from which deduct
the original investment, and the net profit for the two years’
operation is $19,225, or $9,612.50 annually, or 362/3 per cent,
per annum — which ought to be a satisfactory per cent, profit,
and an equally satisfactory exhibit in favor of Southeastern
Colorado as a cattle country. For the benefit of any reader
who may be looking toward Colorado and indulging thoughts
of entering its borders to become stock growers, we submit a

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

385

statement of Mr. Goodnight’s live stock assets, as appears in
an inventory upon his own books kept for business purposes :

400 Texan Cows, .

.$15 00 per head, . .

400 Graded Cows, . .

_ 20 00 per head, .

150 three-year old Steers,.

.. 20 00 per head .

. 3,000

300 two-year old Steers,...

. 12 00 per head, . .

. 3,600

550 Yearlings, .

. 9 00 per head, .

. 4,950

48 Bulls, . . .

. 50 00 per head, .

. 2,400

1848 .

Total value,...

. _.$27,950

The reader may rightly conclude that the above estima¬
ted values per head are really lower than are warranted, but
it is not the purpose to overdraw the business of stock-ranch¬
ing. These specific results are given in order that the reader
may have a correct conception of the magnitude and profita¬
bleness of the live stock commerce between Texas and Colo¬
rado during that period, and the profitableness of stock-grow¬
ing in southeastern Colorado, and not in any sense for the
purpose of boasting.

Having attained, at least to a reasonable degree, the goal
of his ambition, to-wit: a substantial competency, won in an
upright honorable business ; in the pursuit of which he had
spent twenty of life’s brightest years, living at best in dug-
outs, cabins and tents, and often day and night in the open
air, enduring hardship, privation and deadly danger, Mr.
Goodnight determined to settle down and seek the com¬
forts and quiet repose of a good home, and to bring
around himself those tender endearments without which wealth
and life itself is but a blank and a failure. Accordingly, in
1871, he made a purchase of a portion of the “Nolan Land
Grant,” situate south and west of the city of Pueblo, Colo¬
rado, and well located for a large stock ranch, and a desira¬
ble home. There he erected his residence, to which soon
after he brought one of Tennessee’s fairest daughters.

Besides his present live stock interests he stands at the
head of the Stock Growers’ Bank of Pueblo, an institution
especially designed to accommodate the rapidly developing
live stock interest of southeastern Colorado.

386

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

From early childhood Mr. Goodnight’s life has been
spent upon the frontier where educational facilities did not
exist. Nevertheless he has by application, since attaining
the years of mature manhood, educated himself. Naturally
he has superior talents and endowments to which he joins a
rigid and circumspect moral character, and a diffident mod¬
esty rarely met with in the west, which prompts him to shrink
from rather than seek publicity. Indeed it may be truthfully
said that he despises notoriety and does not desire to appear
conspicuously in print. Had the Author been dependent
upon him for the items concerning events of his history this
sketch would never have been written.

By nature he is gifted with a genius fitting him to com¬
mand, even in a land of sovereigns. His life, although cast
upon the wildest frontiers and subjected to the rudest circum¬
stances, has been such that he has not lost the higher, nobler,
tenderer feelings and sensibilities of an exalted manhood.
The secret of his gratifying success is his diligent, persistent
application to, and study of his business until he was a com¬
plete master thereof, both in theory and practice, coupled
with an upright life and an unswerving integrity of character.
He has no superiors in the great new west, and his success
has been as deserved as great.

It has often been truthfully observed that an inherited for¬
tune ninety-nine in every hundred cases, is an actual curse
instead of a blessing to the legatee ; especially if he be a young
man who has never had to think, or do business for himself.

Whether this proposition is absolutely correct or not
one thing is certain, nine hundred and ninety-nine of every
thousand successful business men in the west began life ex¬
tremely poor in cash capital — rich only in energy and manly
determination.

It would seem to be a correct proposition that the best
inheritance a young man can possibly receive, is a clear, well
developed and educated mind — good fixed moral principles,
energy, and an honorable ambition, with the necessity for self

or THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST. ^87

exertion before him. It seems to be true that no one is or
can be born with Correct ideas and knowledge of business.
No matter how good a business man the father may have
been, the son must needs go through a certain amount of
trenchant drilling or experiences before he can comprehend
or know how to conduct business successfully. And it is far
better that the phases of business life, and a knowledge of
correct business principles be learned by actual experience
when one is young and poor, than to begin life with hands
full, and in after years be compelled to begin anew and not
only learn correctly but unlearn all that has been erroneously
acquired before. It is indeed more difficult to correct a
faulty or false business education and fixed habits, and then
learn or acquire a correct knowledge and habits of doing busi¬
ness than to learn correct ones at the beginning.

It does not seriously hurt the child if it totters and falls
to the floor from the first stair-step ; but if it is carried to the
top of the stairs and placed upon the highest step, without a
correct knowledge of the effort and manner of its getting
there and the danger of falling ; its fall to the bottom will be
far more probable (and possibly painfully disastrous) than had
it climbed up step by step unaided.

The reading public is interested in the history of the
early, first efforts of a young man just starting out in the
world for himself. The smallest incident or event that tests
and indicates the metal of which he is composed is noted with
deepest interest — far greater than is manifested in the largest
business transactions successfully consummated in after life,
when the trying reefs and shoals of poverty and temptation
have been passed and the deep, serene harbor of great
wealth fully attained.

When a young, inexperienced boy of tender years is
thrown upon the world to struggle and provide for himself,
surrounded by every imaginable temptation, and allured by
gilded vice and iniquity upon every hand, with no one to en¬
courage his efforts toward the path of rectitude and success,

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

388

but a legion beckoning to ruin ; we hail with joy the youth
emerge unscathed, circumspect in morals and strong in good,
well-grounded principles, into bright, promiseful manhood
and honorable success. We feel instinctively that for such
the world has a sure and bountiful reward and humanity
honorable plaudits.

Such an one is Dennis Sheedy, a young stockman well
known throughout the West and upon the Pacific Slope.

Born in Massachusetts, at the age of twelve years he
was thrown upon his own resources, his father dying broken¬
hearted from financial reverses and losses which swept his
ample fortune away as the furious blast of the tornado
sweeps the dust from the street. At this tender age the
youth went to the State of Iowa and entered a large whole¬
sale and retail grocery store, in which he remained for five
years. In that time he acquired a thorough practical knowl¬
edge of the business, including the minutest details.

When he left that establishment it was to cross the
plains to Denver. He went in company with a number of
teams loaded with freight for the mining districts. Paying a
small stipend for conveying a limited amount of baggage, he
walked nearly the entire distance.

Arriving in Denver with but a few dollars in cash, he in¬
dustriously set about obtaining employment, which he soon
found in a wholesale and retail grocery and provision house
doing a very large busines

Although his salary was good, the expense of living was
so great that he soon found no money could be saved in that
situation, and he determined to abandon it, greatly to the dis¬
appointment of the proprietors. He had went West to seek
a fortune and not a mere living, and he determined to go to
Montana and try mining. Accordingly he set out over the
mountains early in the spring before the snows were off, and
endured great suffering and hardship from the cold winter
storms. Yet he pushed on, arriving in Montana with only a
few dollars, but in good time to begin mining in the spring 0!

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST. ^89

1864. Too poor and inexperienced in mining to begin on
his own ac count, he went to work for a salary per diem.

He was then but eighteen years old and unaccustomed
to rough out-door labor, and not of a rugged frame. There
were several muscular miners employed upon the same
work, and they thought it fitting sport to seek to overdo the
young man and drive him from the situation. Upon one
warm afternoon when they were wheeling over long gang
planks, heavy wheelbarrow loads of rock and debris, the
young man having drank too much water and becoming over¬
heated from great exertion and labor, fell fainting and ex¬
hausted from the gang plank. This was the signal for coarse
guffaws of laughter from the miners, but the young man soon
revived, and to their astonishment, although he was pale and
tremulous, remounted the plank and took his wheelbarrow
and did do his part of the labor. This was an unexpected
manifestation of genuine pluck, which elicited the admiration
of the hardy uncouth miners. Young Sheedy told them he
came to Montana to mine and he proposed to do it, or die in
the attempt ; and he did not die, but continued to work for
wages until he had earned a net $150.

Then he joined an experienced miner and bought a
claim which they soon resold at a snug profit, and another
claim was bought and sold.

He continued mining and trading in mines for three
months, then bought a small stock of groceries and began
business upon his individual account, which he conducted
until fall. Then selling out he went to Utah Territory, where
meeting an opportunity he sold his gold dust at good figures.
Taking an account of his financial standing, he found he had
$7000.00 in greenbacks as the result of seven months opera¬
tions in the mines, which he had entered almost penniless.
This he regarded as a very encouraging exhibit.

Having had a thorough schooling in adversity he was
fully apprised of the actual value and power of his means.
It was the nucleus to which he could add daily — the key to

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

390

the pandora box of future fortune — the trenchant blade with
which to hew his way to wealth.

Not wishing to spend the winter idly, he embarked in a
general merchandising establishment to his great profit, and
the following summer made two successful and remunerative
trips to Montana, taking train loads of supplies to the mines,
each time selling train and freight at fine prices.

Having acquired a snug capital and a thorough practical
knowledge of business, he felt and foresaw the future need
of a more complete knowledge of commercial law and the
theories of commercial transactions. Accordingly he went to
Chicago, Illinois, and entered a Commercial College of high
repute. In six months, by dilligent application to his stu¬
dies, he advanced to the front of a class that had been one
year in the college. His progress was unprecedented.

While trading in Utah he had observed that the domes¬
tic labors of Mormon wives were almost universally performed
with and by an old-fashioned large fire-place. He concluded
that a train load of cookstoves would be a “ hit.” So upon
leaving college he purchased a cargo of stoves and necessary
trimmings ; also wagons sufficient to carry them, shipped the
whole to Des Moines, Iowa, from whence he freighted them
with ox teams to Utah.

Single stoves that cost $24 each in Chicago, sold readily
in Utah at $125 to $175. Of course the profits were enor¬
mous.

Reloading his trains with supplies he turned it toward
Montana in w'hich, not finding a purchaser, he stored his
goods and wintered his teams and early the following spring
reloaded the supplies and started for Idaho. He encountered
deep snow and extremely cold weather in the mountains.
Often his progress would be blocked for days by immense
snow falls and drifts. Finally, the summit passed and the
perilous descent accomplished, a good market was obtained
in the Lemhigh mining district. Returning to Montana he
sold his teams and the following spring bid adieu to Virginia

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

392

City so long his home, his center, his base, and went to the
city of Helena, where he spent a year merchandising and
trading. Then he put a loaded train on the road from Utah
to White Pine, Nevada, where, upon arriving, he sold out at
good figures, and then took a trip to California.

Feeling that he had seen and experienced enough rough,
hard life, clambering over mountains, enduring privations,
racking hardships and exposures of life and limb, and that he
had acquired a reasonable amount of capital, he determined
to look about and seek a country to his liking and settle him¬
self permanently.

In pursuance of this decision, he took two or three
trips into Southern California and Arizona, and one trip to
Old Mexico, but without finding the goal of his desires.
But while upon a trip in Arizona he met several Texan
drovers, with herds, en route to California, and from
them heard with profound interest of the great numbers, and
low prices of cattle in Texas, and irtwardly resolved to visit
the Lone Star State upon a trading expedition.

Accordingly he took the train for New York City.
From thence he leisurely passed to Texas by rail via Orleans.
Arriving in the stock growing regions he found, like the
ancient queen, that “ the half had not been told.” Soon after
arriving he purchased two thousand good beeves and put
them on the trail for California via Western Kansas. But
upon arriving at Abilene, in the excellent season of 1870, he
received such liberal offers for his stock that he decided to
sell out, which he did, of course at satisfactory figures.

On returning to Texas the following spring he found that
full too many cattle were being driven, and decided that in West¬
ern Kansas during the season, would be the place to purchase
cattle advantageously. His judgment proved, as usual, cor¬
rect.

During the summer he made a purchase of seven
thousand head of mixed cattle. Meeting an opportunity to
resell three thousand head of his purchase, he put the

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

393

remaining four thousand into winter quarters on the Arkan¬
sas River, in Colorado, near Ft. Lyon. Selling a part of his
stock the following summer, he sent thirty-five hundred head
into Nevada, where, in the valleys of that State, he estab¬
lished a temporary ranch. The following year he marketed
near one thousand head of fat beeves, shipping by rail to
San Francisco, a distance of 600 miles.

He regards Nevada as a good cattle country, although
subjected to heavy snow-falls, endangering great loss by cov¬
ering the feed, entailing starvation upon the herds. His
herd has also increased by breeding near one thousand calves.

With the immature stock a remarkably fine development
was made, the effect of transplanting them to more northerly
climes and pastures. Indeed this same improvement is
plainly noticeable in young Texan stock transplanted to Kan¬
san and other ranges north of Texas. A less growth of
horn and better development of form and flesh are the im¬
provements noted.

During the fall of 1873, Mr. Sheedy made a pbrchase
of fifteen hundred head of steers at panic prices and sent
them into the upper Arkansas river country, and there placed
them in winter quarters near Fort Lyon, Colorado.

That portion of country along the Arkansas river for a
distance of three to four hundred miles east of the Rocky
Mountains, is regarded as a very superior stock country and
especially well adapted to wintering stock upon the range.
Mr. Sheedy regards it as superior to any other known locality
in Kansas or Colorado. In that district he has tested win¬
tering cattle twice, both times escaping disastrous storms
and serious losses of cattle. The winters being mild, no
cold storms sufficient to warrant calling the season winter,
but little other protection is needed for the comfort and con¬
venience of the herdsmen than a common tent, such as is
used in summer herding. Indeed for many weeks in the
winter months the weather would be as fine as that of Sep¬
tember or May in other more northerly latitudes ; the warm

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

395

bright sun shining for scores of consecutive days. Water
is abundant, the range unlimited, and of number one quality.
Of course the attempt to winter cattle under such circum¬
stances could scarce fail of success.

. Mr. Sheedy may be regarded as a cosmopolitan live
stock man. His operations have extended and now are con¬
ducted upon both sides of the Rocky Mountains, and he is
familiarly known among stock men in Texas, Kansas, Colo¬
rado, Nevada and California. And wherever known is re¬
garded as a prudent, cautious, thinking business man ; one
who will not rush headlong into any operation whatever, and
never invests until he has fully calculated all contingencies
and sees his way through clearly ; then never beyond his own
means. Having made the latter a rule of his business life,
never having signed more than three notes, he rightly at¬
tributes his success largely to his persistent adherence to the
rule.

Bank interest eats up the profits and substance of hun¬
dreds of stockmen annually. It is an insatiable leech indus¬
triously sucking life-blood both day and night, whether the
day is sacred or secular, sunny or stormy, or whether the
markets are good or bad it matters not ; “the cry is give !
give ! continually.”

Mr. Sheedy is by no means a timorous, vacillating
operator, but when his judgment endorses, he is a nervy,
bold trader. He is quite a young man, not having entered
his thirtieth year, although his experiences are as great, try¬
ing and varied as are those of many years his senior. He
may be justly proud of his success, wrought out and at¬
tained unaided with his own hands and head. But that
pride is not of that vulgar stamp which often characterizes
young men of great wealth, but having bared his bosom in
the cause of fortune, and wrested success from adverse cir¬
cumstances and untoward conditions by his own application,
energy, sagacity and ability, he may well feel that life has not
been a failure. Having acquired a goodly fortune, he now

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

396

seeks to adorn the mind and fit the man for a walk in life
upon a higher plane than that of the mere love and acquisi¬
tion of money, or the gratification of appetites or passions.
His ideas of the purposes and correct aims of life are exalted
and his habits and principles fixed upon a firm basis, and hav¬
ing been tried in the ordeal of western life, are as irreproach¬
able as unalterable.

Personally he is impulsive and warm in his attachments,
sauve and affable in his manner, kind and courteous, though
reserved and reticent among strangers. In all his wanderings
in the wild West, mingling with every class of characters
and surrounded by innumerable temptations, he has been su¬
perior to them, and is free from the most ordinary and, we
might say, universal vices which flourish luxuriantly in the
great New West. His future is one full of promise and
hope ; his past, one worthy of imitation. His career stands
out high and bold as a beacon light, and it may rightly be re¬
garded as a pleasant oasis amid a limitless, dreary desert of
innumerable failures.

The central portions of Kansas afford grand opportu¬
nities and landed facilities for extensive combined farming
and stock growing operations. The districts drained by the
Little Arkansas, Whitewater, Walnut and Cottonwood rivers,
abound with broad undulating plateaux, whose deep, black,
pliable soil is most easily brought into cultivation, reward¬
ing the industrious, persevering agriculturist with generous
yields of every cereal indigenous to a temperate climate.
The amount of effort is small required to produce the most
bountiful crops of corn, oats, wheat, and Hungarian grass,
or millet on a large scale or upon vast areas of land. The
entire district in its wild state, is annually covered with a
thick rich growth of blue stem grass, affording unlimited sum¬
mer range, and millions of tuns of hay for winter feed.

The above section of Kansas may be properly classed
as an agricultural and live stock country ; one where both
branches can be successfully and profitably conducted jointly ;

OF THE WEST AKD SOUTHWEST.

397

feeding the grain products of the farm to the live stock* fit¬
ting it for any mart and thus marketing the grain also.

Within this vast area many large farming and live stock
enterprises, in various stages of development, are located,
among which none are more notable than that of Albert
Crane, Esq., a resident of Chicago, Illinois, and a gentleman
of liberal means.

He has located his ranch enterprise in Marion county,
Kansas, near the headwaters of the Cottonwood river, in the
midst of a grand rich belt of faultless land. He has secured
ten thousand acres of land and placed the entire tract under
fence, mostly of post and board, the balance post and wire ;
and erected such houses, barns, cribs, sheds, and yards as
enables both man and beast to shelter comfortably from the
occasional storms ; besides affording requisite conveniences
and facilities for substantial living, and the easy handling of
large numbers of stock. Already near eleven hundred acres
are broken and under cultivation.

It is his plan to bring the entire tract of land into tame
grasses — principally blue grass — and to this end has sown
one thousand acres of the unbroken wild sod. The wild na¬
ture of the land, and the thick, firm turf of prairie-grass,
caused this effort to result indifferently ; however, in many
places the blue grass has taken hold and bids fair to succeed.

Not to be daunted or thwarted, Mr. Crane is sowing
timothy, clover and blue-grass seeds mixed, upon one hundred
acres of land, which has already been sown to oats or wheat.
In this manner he confidently hopes for better success with
the tame grass ; and it is probable he will not be disappoint¬
ed. He rightly believes that if he can but secure a good set
of blue grass upon all his land that then it will be easy to
fatten or winter live stock, without great labor or expense.
When he has destroyed the wild nature of the land and the
fibrous roots of the native grasses, either by cultivation or
depasturing closely and persistently, he will have but little
trouble to get blue grass to set and grow rapidly. Then his

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

399

highest anticipations of profitable live stock operations will be
realized. With abundant blue grass pastures, under the
genial clime and mild winters of Central Southern Kansas,
producing thick, fat cattle, any month in the year, inexpens¬
ively and without hard labor, will be alike practicable and
highly remunerative. No bank stock of the present day will
pay such handsome dividends.

Mr. Crane has placed upon his ranch a herd of fine
thoroughbred Short-horn cattle, of the best strains of blood,
one of which, especially — the thoroughbred bull Prince Al¬
fred, a genuine Booth — is unexcelled as a model animal in
every respect. To this herd he proposes to add a score or
more of select pure-bloods annually, until it takes rank
among the leading ones of the West.

Not by any means is his thoroughbred cattle his only live
stock interest. More than one hundred of high graded
heifers, selected with great care in Illinois, are upon the
ranch; which, crossed with thoroughbred bulls, will bring
full-blood stock well fitted to any rachman’s requirements
who is breeding to low grade or Texan cows. It is Mr.
Crane’s purpose to give a degree of special attention to the
production of superior graded animals and to induce as far
as possible every Kansas stockman to improve his herd ; and
to this end will place low prices upon his young grade stock :
a commendable spirit worthy of imitation, one that will bear
fruits immediately, and for all future time. Indeed it is dif¬
ficult to estimate the wide-spread substantial benefits accruing
to a large community of stock growers by the location and
development in their midst of an enterprise that includes
among its purposes or aims the propogation and dissemina¬
tion of pure blood, or high grade stock at prices within reach
of those of limited means.

But Mr. Crane’s plans and operations are broader than
yet indicated. Upon his ranch he keeps a herd of three
thousand cattle of low or common grades, of which near one-
half are cows and heifers, which brought an increase of twelve

400

SKETCHES OK THE CATTLE TRADE

hundred calves in the spring of 1874, all bred from thorough¬
bred bulls. The result of the first cross of this character is
to lose every trace, both in form and color, of the southern
mother — in short, brings such a class of stock as would pass
for good “ native” cattle in any mart. It is past all expecta¬
tion, almost past comprehension, what wonderful good re¬
sults are obtained by the crossing of Texan or Indian cows
with full blood Durham bulls. It is one of the grandest in¬
ducements to enter the safe and profitable avocation of stock
growing in the great broad west, which affords so many invi¬
ting situations wherein are afforded every essential requisite
to attain great wealth in the most healthful, honorable, and
profitable of all callings.

It is Mr. Crane’s purpose to breed and rear cattle rather
than to buy and sell them — in brief to ,be a cattle producer
and not a cattle speculator. He also proposes to make his
live stock productions fit for the shambles of New York, and
to this end cultivates yearly many hundred acres of corn which
is fed to the mature cattle during the winter. In short he
proposes to full feed every bullock for which he can produce
sufficient corn. Each year a larger area will be planted to
corn than on the previous. He proposes to soon add five
thousand acres of land to his present estate which will then
embrace fifteen thousand acres in one compact tract. Upon
this large estate we dare say that there are not five acres of
waste land, but every acre is almost exhaustless in soil.

In southwestern Kansas are millions of acres as good as
Mr. Crane’s, in every way adapted to the joint uses of agri¬
culture and live stock production, at prices ranging from four
dollars to eight dollars per acre on long time at low rates of
interest.

It is true, to project and successfully develop an enter¬
prise of the magnitude and upon the scale of Mr. Crane’s,
requires large capital, ability and confidence in the capacities
and resources of the country. Only a small per cent, of men
have sufficient capital to wield such immense enterprises.

402

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

But it is not essential to highly profitable ranch enterprises
that they should be as large as Mr. Crane’s. Live stock
ranches and herds on a much smaller scale are eminently re¬
munerative, and with only a proper degree of persistent ap¬
plication and patience, will inevitably yield substantial com¬
fort and independence, if not actual great wealth. But
few men bring or send large capital to the west, and we deem
it proper to point out the great field for capital and the need
thereof in the western States and Territories. There capital
can earn great profit for its owner, besides doing good and
conferring lasting benefits upon multitudes who are shaping
and developing the young plastic States of the west. Mr.
Crane’s ranch is within twenty-five miles of Florence on the
A., T. & S. Fe. R. R. and will repay the time, delay and ex¬
pense of a visit, besides the hospitality and courtesy of its
foreman, Mr. Reed, will make the heart glad, and a view of
the princely estate and the massive herds will give enlarged
views of the broad new west, its privileges and possibilities.

CHAPTER XIX.

THE PRINCIPAL WESTERN RAILROAD LINES ENGAGED IN THE

LIVE STOCK TRAFFIC THE^H. & ST. JOE THE ST. L., K. C.

k N. THE C. & A. K. P. THE M. R., FT. S. & G. THE L.,

L. k G. - THE A., T. & S. FE - SOUTHWESTERN KANSAS - WICH¬

ITA AND GREAT BEND.

Now that the live stock commerce of the west has be¬
come one of recognized importance and magnitude, it would
seem proper that some mention at least should be made of
the principal railway lines over which the larger portion of
the live stock is moved to points of concentration ; also those
which are the favorite and best routes over which the princi¬
pal shipments are sent forward to eastern points. Of the
latter, the Hannibal & St. Joseph terminating at Quincy,
where both Chicago and direct Buffalo connections are made,
was the first to appreciate and encourage the western cattle
-trade. And it has never ceased to extend the utmost effort
to secure and accommodate a large patronage. Its practical
management has ever been from the first opening of the cat¬
tle trade, of that far-seeing enterprising character which wins
the appreciation and patronage of wide awake shippers. It
makes a speciality of the live stock traffic, and is particular
to treat the stock shipper in such a fair, honorable manner as
secures his warm friendship and patronage. It was the first
road in the State of Missouri to place its stock trains practi¬
cally under the control of its live stock shipping patrons ;
stopping to water, feed, rest, or if need be, unload and re¬
load any car of stock, when necessary, by reason of any
portion of the stock shipping badly — at any station or hour
that the shipper might demand. No employe of the road

SKETCHES OK THE CATTLE TRADE

404

could retain his situation after repeatedly violating this re¬
quirement. Of course so humane and considerate a policy
could only redound to the roads ultimate great advantage.
Such appreciation of the stock shippers interests bears its
own rich reward to the Company, in a large list of friendly
stock men. But this line did not long enjoy a monopoly of
the stock traffic.

Soon the St. Louis, Kansas City and Northern Railroad
extended its line to Kansas City, and entered the arena, bid¬
ding lively and with a great degree of success for a part
of the rapidly increasing live stock freights of the west. By
securing a direct connection, by way of Louisiana, Mo. —
crossing the Mississippi river on a fine iron bridge — with the
Chicago and Alton Railroad — thus reaching by a short direct
route, the grazing and feeding regions of central Illinois, as
well as the Chicago markets — it gave the St. L., K. C. & N.
road the double advantage of offering both St. Louis and
Chicago marts to its patrons. Being a line of few gradients
or sharp curves, but passing over a level route it has been
able to make quick time and to carry live stock in such a
manner as to deliver it in fine condition, at its destination.
The road with which it does its Chicago business (the Chicago
& Alton) stands at the head of the list of Illinois roads as an
unequalled live stock route.

There are other railroads which carry live stock freights
from Kansas City east, but the above-named are the princi¬
pal and favorite ones with stock shippers, and do nine-tenths
of the forwarding of stock eastward.

Of the several railroads which gather the live stock from
the western plains and concentrate it, the Kansas Pacific
Railway is the oldest and the first in the stock traffic. But
as it has been previously mentioned, possibly too often, in
this work it will here be passed, only remarking that its facili¬
ties to handle stock and its live stock resources are alike
immense and are rapidly increasing and developing.

The next road completed, that bid for the southern cat-

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

405

tie tr^de, was the Missouri, Fort Scott & Gu~ road, which
made its cattle depot at Baxter Springs. At that point it
secured a large stock traffic for several years, but the habit
of driving on more westerly trails was so firmly fixed with
southern drovers that, coupled with other reasons, it did not
succeed in securing and holding the stock business at Baxter
Springs to the extent that had been expected. Nevertheless
it still receives a portion of the Texan cattle traffic at Bax¬
ter Springs, besides no inconsiderable amount of stock
shipped from Texas direct via. Missouri, Kansas & Texas
Railway. The country through which it passes is an
elegant one, well adapted to stock growing and stock fatting
combined with agriculture. For the latter the soil and cli¬
mate is most propitious. In the fall and winter seasons all
along the railway line, can be seen numberless well filled corn
cribs and feed yards, in which are full fed many hundreds of
bullocks preparatory for market.

The third railroad completed to a point which gave it
position to compete for the Texan cattle traffic, was the
Leavenworth, Lawrence & Galveston. This is operated
from Kansas City to Coffeyville on the Southern line of the
State of Kansas, at a point sufficiently far west to enable it to
enter into sharp competition with all other lines seeking
patronage from southern drovers.

From the fact that the line was well built, and is so direct
and short that only eleven hours are required to place stock
in Kansas City from the Indian Territorial line, and the far¬
ther fact that it required less time driving from Texas to reach
it, than more westerly and more northerly points; coupled
with the additional fact that the practical management of it has
been in the hands of live, wide-awake men, who have taken
especial pains to satisfactorily serve its live stock patrons ;
from all these reasons the line has been and is fast growing
in decided favor among southern stock men. Of all the
lines seeking southern live stock traffic, this one is so situa¬
ted that it can offer the lowest rates of freight and the quick-

OK THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

407

est time table, hence can place its live stock freights in the
Kansas City market in the best condition.

Reaching the very southern limits of the State it has as
a grazing district, the entire Indian Territory, which near
Coffeyville, its cattle depot, is principally prairie land covered
with a bountiful growth of grass. Abundant water for stock
and camp purposes with ample wood for fuel, are upon all
sides. The whole region is one in which cattle can be held
with the greatest ease and the least possible expense, during
the summer. The railroad company maintain ample free
shipping facilities, and is particular to leave nothing undone
the doing of which would add to the comfort, convenience or
accommodation of stock men.

The country surrounding the terminus within the State
of Kansas, is remarkably fine, closely settled and in a high
state of cultivation. Corn is largely grown and cattle feed¬
ing either full or “ roughing through,” is fast becoming a
leading and profitable industry, and will in time develope to
be a resource of great wealth to the shrewd agriculturist of
those regions.

In the Indian Nation on the south are broad valleys in
which cane profusely abounds which, keeping green during
winter, affords unlimited food for wintering stock ; while in
the country west of Coffeyville it is hilly and broken, inter¬
sected with numerous gravelly rocky living streams of clear
water, on either side of which in the valleys immense amounts
of hay can be secured, costing only the labor of making it.
Here also wintering advantages are afforded which are not
excelled in Southern Kansas.

Into those regions in the fall of 1873, several thousand
head of Texan cattle were put into winter quarters and cared
for during the following winter without sustaining loss in
flesh or numbers worthy of note.

The railroad company owns many thousands of acres of
good land, a large tract of which, situated farther up the line
from Coffeyville, is held Or reserved. Upon this well watered

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

408

tract unlimited summer grazingis afforded to wintered Texan
or to native stock. Taken as a whole the L., L. & G. Rail¬
road and its practical managers are deservedly listed among
the western and southern stock mens’ true friends, and bid
fair to be classed among their benefactors.

Perhaps within the borders of no other State or Terri¬
tory has so great a proportion of the public domain been
donated to Railway Corporations as within the State of Kan¬
sas. Besides the donations from the General Government
divers large tracts of land formerly held as Indian Reserva¬
tions have passed for nominal considerations into the posses¬
sion of railway corporations.

As a result of the liberal if not prodigal policy of the
Federal Government, Kansas now has a munificent, comple¬
ted railway system far in advance of its settlement, popula¬
tion, or agricultural development.

Indeed the old order of building railroads into well set¬
tled and developed districts has, by the stimulus of land
subsidies, been reversed in the west. So that it has become
almost impossible to speedily settle or develop a section of
country through which there is not in operation one or more
lines of railroad. The average American emigrant demands
a railroad completed and in operation, to carry him to the
immediate vicinity to which he would go as the necessary
condition upon which he will graciously deign to accept as a
free gift a quarter section of rich agricultural land as a home
and a heritage. If Uncle Samuel fails to provide the prere¬
quisite — a railroad — although it may cost a few million acres
of his domain — why, Jonathan will indignantly stay in the land
wherein he is a dependent tenant. It is expected that the
next generation will demand of the Government a petit sys¬
tem of narrow guage railroads upon each quarter section of
public land, centering at the most eligible spot upon which
a homesteader would naturally be supposed to locate his
grain bins ; that his crops may be garnered without private
expenditure of cash or labor.

4io

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

Of all the munificent land grants to railway corporations
within the State of Kansas, none excels in number of acres,
variety of country, quality and depth of soil, and salubrity
of climate, the donation to the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe
Railroad Company.

As its name would indicate, the line begins at Atchison,
Kansas, and passes in a southwesterly course through the
Capital city, and through vast coal fields to the Neosho river,
thence bearing more westerly it reaches the great Arkansas
river up the level north side valley, of which to the western
line of the State it passes aggregating a total length of four
hundred and seventy miles.

For two-thirds of its length a belt of rich farming and
grazing land from ten to twenty miles in breadth, is the mu¬
nificent gift of the Federal Government.

But it is the province and scope of this work to treat only
of such subjects, as have a connection, bearing, or adap¬
tability to the live stock business, or using a phrase more ex¬
pressive than elegant, “ Look at every thing through a cow’s
horn."

Of the A., T. & S. Fe Land Grant, the western third sit¬
uated upon the upper Arkansas river, may be regarded as
being naturally fitted and adapted to exclusive stock-growing,
which of course includes wool-growing. There is water
range and shelter for hundreds of thousands head of stock.
The grasses are principally of the buffalo grass variety, with
occasional broad valleys covered with blue stem. But a
small per cent, of the many good eligible stock ranch loca¬
tions, abundantly near the railroad, are as yet taken. This is
true of the government lands (which can be had for the tak¬
ing), as well as the company’s lands. There are uncounted
opportunities for live stock ranching operations of as large
or small dimensions as the heart may wish. Chances to
grow cattle by the dozen or by the thousand annually, and
equally as good opportunities to grow wool by the wagon or
car load, in a sunny, almost rainless clime, and in a winterless

412

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

latitude, upon lands to be had at extremely low prices, upon
long credit with nominal interest, and all within sight of a
railroad, the owners of which are as anxious to promote the
general welfare of its patrons and the general development
of the country as the settlers possibly can be. This line
will be extended during 1874, in a southwesterly direction
from Granada, Colorado, its present terminus, in the direction
of Santa Fe, New Mexico. The country through which it
will be located is unsurpassed on the continentTor live stock
growing.

But to return, the remaining two-thirds of the land
grant is located within that belt in which joint agriculture and
stock growing and feeding can be most profitably conducted.
The soil is very rich and deep. Water, blue stem prairie
grass upon the bottoms or valleys, and buffalo and winter
grass upon the uplands are abundant ; indeed in limitless
supply. Every specie of grain, vegetable or other produc¬
tion peculiar to that latitude can be produced without limit
and at the smallest possible expenditure of labor.

The great Arkansas valley when fully settled and de¬
veloped, will produce more grain than any other valley in the
world.

It is in that valley that the railroad company have estab¬
lished its cattle shipping depots for the concentration and
shipment of Texan cattle. In the live stock traffic this line
has been a determined and successful competitor of the
Kansas Pacific Railway, since the spring of 1871. Its first
live stock depot was at Newton, but the rapid settlement of
the country necessitated its re-establishment, which was
done at Wichita and at Great Bend. Both points are in the
Arkansas valley, the first upon a branch railroad, the latter
upon the main line.

At Wichita during the first season after the road was
completed to that point, a cattle shipment was made of near
four thousand cars, which amount was nearly duplicated dur¬
ing the following year. So great a commerce thrust suddenly

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST. ^ j ^

upon the town createa an unprecedented demand for business
accommodations, store rooms, banks, hotels, &c. The town
soon grew to the proportions of a city, and imposing brick
and stone buildings arose upon all hands to accommodate the
increased business, among which the Occidental Hotel, an
edifice that would do credit to rebuilt Chicago. The limitless

rich-soiled valley surrounding this point must ultimately be¬
come so thoroughly and compactly settled that a foreign
cattle commerce will no longer be practicable. The settle¬
ment already extends fully twenty miles beyond the river,
and only by an amicable arrangement made with the settlers
before the cattle arrive in the spring, can they be brought
through the settlements to the shipping yards, of which the
company has most excellent ones.

Every needed accommodation exists in the way of able
banking institutions, hotels and large business houses, to ac¬
commodate an immense cattle trade, and the railroad is thor¬
oughly equipped with superior rolling stock, motive power, and
all needful facilities to transport more than one hundred thous¬
and head of cattle annually. Stock from New Mexico or
Southern Colorado are provided with a shipping depot at
Granada, the present terminus of the railroad line. Great

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

415

Bend, on the main line, is located near the river and imme¬
diately surrounded by a rich valley which, upon either side,
is bounded by millions of acres of upland, covered with
buffalo grass and watered by small living streams of water.
This point is destined, at no distant day, to be recognized as
the chief shipping depot for Texan cattle on the line of the
A., T. & S. Fe R. R. By its location it is accessible from
the best stock ranges in Kansas, and has had in the past no
inconsiderable stock business from Colorado, herds stopping
in the vicinity of Great Bend have the advantage of the mar¬
ket and competition of the K. P. Railway, which is distant
only about forty miles. This fact alone will secure it a good
business. The adjacent country is such that it will remain
unsettled for years to come, unless taken for stock ranches
for which the country presents magnificent opportunities and
advantages.

Parties seeking to purchase Texan cattle for market,
feeding, or ranching purposes, find Great Bend a point so
located that from it all the southern and western cattle stop¬
ping near Wichita, or near the A., T. & S. Fe R. R., as well
as all those stopping on the line of the K. P. Railway, can
be seen without great difficulty or extremely long rides in
the hot sun. This gives purchasers an opportunity to make
selections of stock and find good bargains, not equalled by
any other cattle point in the State of Kansas. The shipping
facilities are all that the most fastidious, or the largest opera¬
tors could desire, and the citizens are unanimous in the de¬
termination to promote and facilitate a large cattle trade.

The A., T. & S. Fe Railroad presents many advantages
to the southern stockman. Among which is its limitless
grazing facilities, abounding in every variety of lands and
grasses, with abundant living water in low, easy banked,
shallow, swift streams, having sandy or gravel beds ; the
choice of two good competing shipping depots, and frontier
marts ; besides offering the shipper choice of two routes ;
one by way of Atchison thence by various lines to Chicago

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

4l6

and the east — or up into the corn regions of northern Mis¬
souri, Iowa and eastern Nebraska; or to go by way of Kan¬
sas City and enjoy its numerous advantages. The practical
management of this line has been from the beginning of that
enlightened liberal character that could not fail to secure and
retain many patrons among live stock men.

But a sketch of the A., T. & S. Fe road would be incom¬
plete that did not point out the great advantages offered by the
vast country through which the road passes, for growing, win¬
tering, and fatting live stock. The eastern third of the line
passes through a corn-growing and stock- feeding section of
great merit. The middle third is well adapted, if not spe¬
cially designed, for joint stock growing and agriculture, the
western third is among the best exclusive stock and wool¬
growing sections in the State of Kansas.

If the driving of cattle from Texas to Kansas must
needs continue in the future, the drovers would act wisely to
possess themselves of choice stock ranch locations, and hold
their stock, if need be, over winter until it was fat, instead of
putting it upon market whilst unfit by reason of its poverty.

Too much cannot be said against the suicidal policy of
shipping or marketing poor, thin stock. It is sure financial
ruin and bankruptcy to those who persistently practice it.
It is a common practice of southern drovers, and as unwise
if notactually foolish as it is common, to ship their unfatted,
immature stock direct to market, where they inevitably real¬
ize low, mean prices, besides the stock weighs -next to noth¬
ing, and of course brings little comparatively, above shipping
and selling expenses. Millions of dollars are annually lost,
or rather the means out of which to make millions of dollars,
are annually sacrificed, lost, thrown away, by marketing thin-
fleshed stock. It is like one burning his own resources. It
is on a par with the wisdom which dictated the cutting open
of the goose that laid the golden egg. It is a foolish sacri¬
fice of great resources. It is like giving away ones oppor¬
tunity to add fifty per cent, to ones assets, or the opportu-

or THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

417

nity to double the value of ones property within a year.
There can be no tenable justification of such conduct on the
part of live stock owners. With millions of acres of grass
and unlimited amounts of feed being annually burned up, or
allowed to rot unused, or sold for a trifle above cost of pro¬
duction, nothing but a lamentable lack of business sense and
thrift would ever allow or permit so many unfatted cattle and
hogs to go to market, there to be sacrificed for nominal, un¬
paying prices, realizing scarce one-half the net sum that a
little fat or tallow would make attainable. A reform in this
respect is in order, if not imperatively demanded, by the best
interest of western live stock men.

Of the cattle coming from Texas two-thirds are mar¬
keted when almost totally unfit for consumption, thus entail¬
ing, comparatively, immense losses upon the parties selling
them. Rather than continue this foolish, wasteful and ruin¬
ous practice, drovers had infinitely better buy stock ranch
locations in western Kansas and Colorado, and there keep
their stock until it is fat. When they comprehend their own
best interests they will see the force and truth of these obser¬
vations.

CHAPTER XX *

THE MISSOURI, KANSAS AND TEXAS RAILWAY - ITS CONSTRUCTION,

LOCATION AND TERMINI - THE CHARACTER AND ADAPTABILITY

OF THE DISTRICTS THROUGH WHICH IT PASSES - SHIPPING FAT

CATTLE FROM TEXAS VS. DRIVING THEM.

The Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway, from its geo¬
graphical location, and its termini, is destined to become the
chief Texas live stock route. This great road with its pres¬
ent terminus in northern central Texas, is well located to
command and accommodate the exportation of live stock
from that broad State. The construction of the line com¬
menced at Junction City, Kansas, in 1868.

The company is composed of an association of some of
of the best and most active business men and capitalists of
New York, men thoroughly acquainted with the business
wants of the country, and possessed of the requisite knowl¬
edge of the demands of trade, to develop and successfully
construct a line of railroad to meet all the various interests
of cheap and rapid transportation from Texas to the sea
board, and the northern lakes.

In a few months the line was extended down the Neosho
valley to the southern line of the State of Kansas and a
branch, destined to be the main line, was completed to Seda-
lia, Missouri, there securing complete rail connections for St.
Louis.

In a contest arising before the Interior Department, with
another new Line, the right of way across the Indian Nation
was awarded to the M., K. & T. Railway. This valuable

'oMrth.lnMex«^ say?

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

419

franchise secured, the work of extending the line southward
to Red river and Texas was pushed energetically forward,
until about the first of January, 1873, it was completed to the
flourishing city of Denison, about five miles south of Red
river in Texas.

Before the southern extension was completed, a line from
Sedalia in a northeastern course to Hannibal, crossing the
Missouri river near Boonville, was projected and vigorous
work began. In less than six months from the completion
of the line to Denison, trains were run through to Hannibal.
This completed line from Hannibal on the Mississippi river,
where direct Chicago, and Toledo connections are secured,
to Denison, Texas, is one, remarkable alike for its great
length ; for the brief space of time transpiring in its construc¬
tion ; for the substantial manner in which the road is built ;
and for the excellence of the material used in its construction.

The climate is mild and healthy, and the country through
which the road passess, produces cotton, wheat, oats, corn,
and all kinds of wild and tame grasses abundantly. In all
these respects it stands unrivalled by western railway lines.

But in another respect, one in which it is the province
and scope of this work to deal, it is none the less remarka¬
ble, and worthy of special note ; that of it being a trunk line
over which the live stock freights of the great southwest,
including not only a large portion of the State of Kansas, and
Missouri, but the Indian Territory and the State of Texas
also, must find its way to profitable market.

As a live stock line it has a length of nearly eight hund¬
red miles, and not only runs through a great variety of fine
stock country, but passes through and into the home of
nearly every grade and breed of live stock. Beginning upon
the margin of the ever green, growing regions of Texas,
'where exist uncounted thousands of cattle, lineal descend¬
ants of Cortes’ importations into Mexico, which know not
what it is to be fed by the hand of man — thence it passes in
a northeasterly course through the Indian Territory. In the

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

420

Nation are iound thousands of cattle whose progenitors were
the old-fashioned American cattle such as existed throughout
the Union before the advent of the heavy quartered Durham,
whose rounded progeny are found in great numbers upon
every farm in central and eastern Missouri. No other line
of railway in the Union reaches so completely the natural
homes of all classes and grades of live stock ; as well as the
countries best suited to the various modes of growing and
fitting the same for market. Upon the great area situated at
its southern terminus, is found a country and clime where
stock raising and fatting upon the rich native grasses, is not
only extensively but profitably done upon a large scale, and
from whence an immense annual supply of beef can and will,
for years to come be produced and put upon northern and
eastern markets. In central Missouri a blue grass and corn¬
growing region is traversed, in which stock feeding and fat¬
ting, rather than stock-growing, is extensively and very pro¬
fitably conducted upon a large scale.

For the accommodation of this trade, this great and
growing commerce in live stock, the Missouri, Kansas and
Texas Railway have made ample arrangements both in the
way of suitable rolling stock and motive power, and have pro¬
vided suitable, complete loading and feed yards at such
points along the line as will best serve the interest and con¬
venience of stock shippers.

At Denison, Texas, a substantial, commodious shipping
yard is located, which is capable of affording accommodation
for two thousand head of cattle, besides serving the addi¬
tional purpose of a resting and feed yard for such consign¬
ments of live stock as may be received from the Houston
and Texas Central Railroad. It is the intention of the com¬
pany to enlarge their facilities for doing live stock business
at Denison by securing for grazing purposes a large tract of
prairie country west of Denison and convenient to the ship¬
ping yards. This prairie land is covered with grass the year
round, and has fine, clear water running in numerous branches

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

421

and creeks, thus making it a very superior herding ground.
But if the stock man desires a larger territory upon which to
hold his herd, he is accommodated in the Chickasaw Nation,
wherein a large tract of prairie land has been leased by the
Railway Company expressly for the accommodation of cat¬
tle men. In the midst of this large tract, at Colvert Station,
snug, substantial shipping yards have been established.

At Denison are located several first class banks, one of
which, the First National, has a capital of $100,000, and the
corporation is composed of some of the best business men of
Texas and Missouri. The eastern connections of this bank
are such that accommodations at reasonable rates are
given to stock shippers in any amounts they may require in
their business. Other banks are also prepared to assist
the stock trade, so the shipper may be certain of being
accommodated without delay on his arrival at Denison. The
hotels at Denison are numerous, large and commodious, and
prices to stock shippers and dealers are made very reasonable.

At many stations through the Indian Nation are located
good shipping yards of capacity equal to the business offered.
All the shipping yards are owned by the Railway Company
and are free to the shippers.

At Chetopa, on the Kansas State Line, a good feed and
resting yard is located, wherein are found ample convenience
for both feeding and resting stock. This point is about two
hundred and fifty miles from Denison, which distance is a
good run from the latter point. Chetopa is a point to which
many cattle, before the completion of the railway to Texas,
were driven across the Indian Territory, and there shipped
to northern markets. Indeed it yet enjoys a respectable
amount of live stock business, and perhaps will continue to
do so as long as cattle are driven, instead of shipped from
Texas.

At Sedalia, Missouri, another good feed and resting
yard is located, at which such consignments as are destined
for St. Louis are fed, rested, and re-shipped upon another

SKETCHES OK THE CATTLE TRADE

422

line, while such shipments as are intended for central Illinois,
Chicago, or eastern markets, either with or without having
been rested and fed, go direct to Hannibal, where again am¬
ple facilities for resting, feeding, and reshipment are provided.

At Hannibal the shipper has choice of good competing
routes to Chicago or Buffalo ; in addition to being in the
midst of a large cattle-feeding and grazing district, which
annually requires many thousands of imported cattle to con¬
sume the grass and corn crops of those regions. Certainly a
very complete cattle market could be established at Hanni¬
bal, one that would be alike beneficial to the southern cattle
producer as well as to the northwestern feeder and grazer ; a
market in which the Texan, the Indian, the old-fashioned
native, the graded and full blood Durham could be had in
ample supply

Such consignments as are destined for Kansas City
leave the M., K. & T. at Fort Scott, and reach that market
via the Missouri River, Fort Scott and Gulf Railroad. Thus
it will be seen that no route from Texas or the Indian Nation
offers such advantages as does the M., K. & T. Ry., reaching
as it does from the Red to the Mississippi river. Coming
north the shipper can turn to the left and reach the Kansas
City packing market — or turning to the right go upon the
St. Louis market — or going straight forward can reach the
central Illinois feed and grazing markets, or go direct to Chi¬
cago the greatest live stock market in the world. Over this
route reasonable rates of freight and charges only are exact¬
ed, rates as low per car per mile as are afforded by any other
route in the west, and that, too, without expensive, tedious
and risky drives which always deterioates the stock in value
even more than it saves in prices of freights, not to mention
the expense, risk and labor of such long drives. But there is
another inducement, well worthy of note to Texan live stock
men, located at Denison. The Atlantic and Texas Refriger¬
ating Car Company, which has constructed one hundred new
cars arranged and adapted to shipping fresh beef, has been

THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

423

located and established at Denison for slaughtering cattle at
the rate of five hundred daily. This company is prepared,
and was organized for the purpose of making a market at
Denison for all good fat cattle that may be brought there.
It will pay in cash, good prices for cattle suitable for the east¬
ern markets. They have capacity for shipping three trains
each week, and the success they are meeting with will doubt¬
less induce them to largely increase the business.

To Texan live stock men that ought to be and doubtless
is an enterprise which should meet their approbation as well
as hearty co-operation and patronage. Such a thing as a
home demand and a home market, steady and reliable, is a
desideratum they have never had, but have long desired and
needed. The establishment is complete in all its arrangements
for slaughtering the bullock, and cooling the carcass, at a rapid
wholesale rate. When the meat is cooled it is hung up by
the quarter in a car specially arranged for its protection and
transportation. Each car will hold double the number of
carcasses of cattle that an ordinary stock car will hold of liv¬
ing cattle, besides the meat goes to market without bruising
or delay, and in only about one-third the time and at one-half
the expense required to market beef by the old methods. It
has been successfully demonstrated that beef can be laid down
in New York at reasonable prices and in fine, clean order by
this mode of shipment. The great saving of freight is divi¬
ded betweeii the producers and consumers. If Texan live
stock men have their own best interests at heart, or have
sufficient public spirit they will hardly let that enterprise
which promises them so much timely relief and profit go
unaided and unsupported by their patronage.

In addition to the advantages enumerated for the rapid
shipment of live stock to good eastern markets, the M. K.
& T. R. W. are now having constructed a large number of
cars that are known as the “ Palace Stock Cars.” They are
cars made longer than the usual stock cars now in use ; and
are so built that each animal is provided with a stall in which

424

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

it can lay down to rest. The stalls are provided with feed
boxes and hay racks, also tanks for the purpose of watering
the animals. In those cars fine beef cattle and blooded stock
can be transported over long distances and be taken from the
cars as unfatigued as if they had not made a journey. Trains
of this kind will run regularly, and the advantages to shippers
cannot be over estimated.

But the question whether it would be more profitable
and advisable for southern cattle men to continue to drive
their cattle to western Kansas and the territories as has been
their habit for the last seven or eight years, or leave them
upon their native pastures until fat, and then send them by
rail direct to market, is becoming of more urgent importance
daily, and is beginning to exercise the minds of southern
drivers to a great extent. In view of the facts that the years
of 1871, 1872 and 1873, have, taken in aggregate, entailed
immense losses upon the southern drover, whose herds have
been taken to western Kansas ; and again, that the western
territories have become so largely and completely supplied
with cattle that instead of being buyers of large numbers as
heretofore upon the western Kansas market, they now are
and hereafter will be large sellers ; and inasmuch as they
are able to send very fat cattle to market, their competition
is not only great but disastrous to the driver of fresh Texan
cattle — in view of all these facts is it not full time that a
change in the mode and manner of marketing ‘Texan cattle
be effected ? Besides the territorial demand in former years,
constituted one of the principal inducements to drive to western
Kansas. Now since this inducement no longer exists, but
rather the reverse is true, it becomes a serious question, one
which may be narrowed down to that of the profitableness of
marketing fat and lean cattle. The observing, sensible dro¬
ver, or the one who has experimented in shipping live stock,
needs no words or figures to convince him that fat stock only
can profitably be put upon the northern markets. Few busi¬
ness propositions are so little understood and comprehended

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

425

by Texan cattle men as ^he fact that whilst a bullock which
is fat may be worth many dollars, at the same time and upon
the same market a bullock which is lean is almost worthless ;
if salable at all it is only at mean low prices, and when driven
upon the scales it weighs very light, almost nothing, hence
brings little or nothing above expenses of marketing ; whilst
the fat bullock, although no better animal, only fatter, weighs
heavy, sells at high figures and pays out a handsome price
and profit above cost and expense. No man living ever made
a dollar by shipping poor thin cattle to market — many have
lost thousands of dollars. Now in view of these indisputa¬
ble well known facts, and in view of the fact that upon an
average not one bullock in ten when driven to western Kan¬
sas, unless wintered there, becomes fat enough even for
packing purposes, and not one in a thousand becomes in
such condition of flesh as to be put on the eastern mar¬
kets the same season in which they are driven from
Texas and must for the very reason named be sold at
low prices. In view of these facts, in connection with
the falling off of the demand for other than fat cattle, is
it not time the Texan should cease to exhaust his herds
of stock and breeding cattle, and reconstruct his habits
of driving and let his cattle remain upon their native plains
until fat, then send them direct to market. Take an exam¬
ple : A thin-fleshed four-year old steer does well to weigh
nine hundred pounds gross, and at two cents per pound
( a price about the average realized during the last three years)
would bring eighteen dollars per head, out of which driving
and other expenses must.be paid, leaving but little net for the
bullock ; whilst a bullock of the same quality and age only
actually fat, weighs about twelve hundred pounds, and is easier
to sell at three cents per pound gross weight, or upwards,
than the thin one was at two cents ; and will amount to thirty-
six dollars per head, or twice as much as the thin one, and
the expense of marketing is nothing more but the margin for
profit is large. There is a lesson that live stock men need

SKETCHES OF THE CATTLE TRADE

426

to learn thoroughly and perfectly — ihat it pays to market fat
live stock and only fat live stock — poor, thin ones never. If
it be true that by driving their herds to Kansas, they prevent
them from becoming marketably fat, do they not do them¬
selves a financial injury by so driving, especially since they
have now a means of marketing their live stock direct and
quick from Texas to any desired northern market, upon which
they need not go until their stock is fat aad fit for the mart,
and not then unless the market will justify. When the rate
of freight exacted from western points to St. Louis or Chi¬
cago is compared with that asked from Texas over the M., K.
& T. Road to the same markets, it will be found that the
difference in favor of the western routes is scarce above one
dollar per head, a sum that will hardly pay above one-third
the actual costs of driving, not to mention the depreciation
of the stock in flesh and consequent value, or rather the loss
of the time and opportunity to appreciate its value by fatting
the animals instead of driving them. In years gone by be¬
fore any railroad was built to Texas, when there was a great
demand for cattle in the territories, and upon the Pacific slope,
and native cattle were scarce in the north ; there was a neces-
ity for, and a profit in driving, to western Kansas, but since
the conditions are changed, and the demands from those
sources has fallen off so that fat cattle only can be profitably
marketed, it would seem to reasoning and reflecting minds
that the day for driving cattle is past, and the time fully come
when ranchmen in all sections should retain their stock at
home until fat, and then ship direct tq market. The
advantages of such a course are numerous and manifest ;
thece need ba- no heavy loans of money, or loss of time in
holding and fattening the stock ; there would be no simul¬
taneous running of many thousands upon the market at once,
or within the space of a month’s time ; there would be no
necessity to sell at the first approach of frosty weather,
whether the cattle were fat or not, or the market good or
bad. If the market should be unusually low as has been the

OF THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST.

427

case in former years, then the supply could be withheld for
another year and better prices ; again the drover could enjoy
the substantial comforts of home with its thousand endear¬
ments instead of hardships, exposure and risks of a long
drive, and the tedious expensive holding in a country abound¬
ing in prohibitory legislation, dead lines, and herd laws

First National Bank

KANSAS CITY, MO.

Paid in Capital, - $500,000.

Tie Larpst Casl Capital West of Saint Lonis.

This Bank was the first to appreciate the importance of the Cattle Trade
and the first to assist it, and proposes to continue its long
established and liberal policy towards that interest.

codirectors.^

HOWARD M. HOLDEN, President.

EDWARD H. ALLEN, Vice President.

MICHAEL DIVELEY.

FRANCIS FOSTER.

BENJAMIN McLEAN, Hide and Wool Dealer.

S. B. ARMOUR, of firm of Plankinton & Armours, Beef and Pork Packers.
THOS. K. HANNA, of firm of Tootle & Hanna, Wholesale Dry Goods
Merchants.

B. A. FEINEMAN, of firm of B. A. Feineman & Co., Wholesale Liquor

Merchants.

C. A. CHASE, Agent Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad.

J. A. BACHMAN, of firm of Bachman & Bro., Wholesale Tobacconists.
JOSEPH CAHN, of firm of Cahn & Co.. Wholesale Clothiers.

C. B. LAMBORN, Secretary Kansas Pacific Railway.

L. T. MOORE, of firm of Bullene, Moores & Emery, Wholesale Dry Goods

Merchants.

O. CHANUTE, Chief Engineer Erie Railway.

KERSEY COATES, President Missouri River, Fort Scott & Gulf Railway.

JOHN D. BANCROFT, Cashisr.

M. W, St. CLAIR, Ass’t Cashier.

W. H. WINANTS, Cashier, Stock Yards Bank.

HUNTER, EVANS & CO.,

COMMISSION MERCHANTS FOR THE SALE OF

NATIONAL YARDS, East St. Louis, Ills.,

AND

KANSAS STOCK YARDS, Kansas City, Mo,

Cash advanced on consignments to either House. Special attention given to the sale of Texan and
Colorado Cattle.

R. C. WHITE, Kansas City. L. A. ALLEN, Bent Co., Col. M. M. EVANS, Kansas City.

WHITE, ALLEN & CO.,

Commission Merchants for the Sale of

Live

Stock

Kansas Stock Yds. ^^^^"KAKSAS CITY, MO.

REFER TO

WESTERN LIVE STOCKMEN

OR TO

BANKS DOING BUSINESS WITH WESTERN STOCKMEN.

Rogers, Powers & Co.,

SUCCESSORS TO

GILLESPIE, ROGERS & CO.,

Live Stock

Commission,

STOCK YARDS,

Kansas City, - Missouri.

WE GUARANTEE OUR SALES.

J. L. Mitchener & Son,

LIVE STOCK

Commission Merchants,

Kansas Stock Yards,
KANSAS CITY, - MO.

GIVE PARTICULAR ATTENTION TO THE SALE OF

CATTLE AND HOGS,

AND GUARANTEE PROMPT RETURNS.

Parties wishing information concerning Stock can obtain the same bjr ad¬
dressing letters or telegrams to us.

SEND FOR PRICE CURRENT.

GEO. K. BAR8E.

A. J. SNIDER.

J3ar.SE JSnIDER,

Commission Merchants for the Sale of

Kansas Stock Yards,

KJJJSJS CITY, MO.

HAVING FIRST CLASS CONNECTIONS WITh

CHICAGO, SIT LOUIS, BUFFALO.

PITTSBURG, ALBANY

AND NEW YORK,

And an extensive acquaintance with

THE FEpDERS OF MISSOURI,

IOWA, KANSAS AND ILLINOIS,

We are at all times enabled to realize the

Strength of the Market.

REPORTS OF THE MARKETS FURNISHED WHEN DESIRED.
CORRESPONDENCE SOLICITED.

^•“Telegrams promptly answered and immediate Returns Rendered on
Completion of Sales.

JNO. B. HUNTER & CO.,

LIVE STOCK

COMMISSION

AITD

Forwarding Merchants.

OFFICE, No. 2 Exchange Buildings

Saint Louis National Stock Yards,

EAST ST. LOUIS, ILL

Particular Attention given to Forwarding Stock.

COIR.. FIFTH and W YJJFttOTTE

KANSAS CITY, - MO.

Jas. H. Bagwell, Sole Proprietor.

THE ONLY HOTEL LOCATED ON FIFTH STREET. THE THOROUGH-
FARE FROM THE DEPOT TO THE BUSINESS CENTRE.

Is the recognized Headquarters for
Western and Southern Cattle men; and
it makes first-class accommodations for
Stockmen a specialty.

The best Rooms and most sumptuous Tables at

REASONABLE PRICES.

KANSAS CITY

Type#, Electrotype

FOUNDRY.

KEEP A FULL LINE OF

NEWS AND JOB TYPE

PRINTING PRESSES,

AND ALSO MANUFACTURE

Leads, Slugs, Metal Furniture, Brass
Rules, &c.

A SPECIALTY MADE OF

Casting Rollers, and Furnishing Roller Composition.

A FINE ASORTMENT OF

NEWS & COLORED INKS
Always on Hand.

Old Type and Second-Hand Pressses Wanted.

ALWAYS AHEAD.

The Kansas City Times.

THE GREAT NEWSPAPER

THE MISSOURI VALLEY.

LIVE STOCK AND MARKET REPORTS CORRECTED DAILY.
THE PAPER FOR CATTLE MEN. THE PAPER FOR
FARMERS. THE PAPER FOR ALL WHO
WANT TO KNOW THE LA¬
TEST NEWS.

*®*TRY IT FOR AWHILE. AGENTS WANTED EVERYWHERE.

DAILY #10.00. TRI-WEEKLY #6.00. WEEKLY #1.50.

ESTABLISHED IN 1854.

DAILY, WEEKLY & TRI-WEEKLY .

Journal of Commerce.

Contains all the latest news by Tblegeaph and Mail. Editorial discussions op current

BVBNTS, AND A LARGE SELECTION OP CHOICE MlSCBLLANY. It GIVES

SPECIAL ATTENTION TO COMMERCIAL MATTERS

AND

LIVE STOCK INTERESTS.

It has arrangements in successful working for all the latest information about the annual drive for
Texas, as well as other features affecting the Stock interest.

FINE JOB PRINTING A SPECIALTY.

Address JOURNAL COMPANY.

IS A WEEKLY PAPER SPECIALLY DEVOTED TO THE

SUBJECT OF LIVE STOCK.

CONTAINS CAREFULLY PREPARED REPORTS OF THE

KANSAS CITY

And other Live Stock Markets.

SUBSCRIPTION PRICE, - - $1.50 PER YEAR.

Address , H. M. <l)ICKS0Jt,

KANSAS CITY, MO.

D. W. POWERS, J. W. POWERS,

Leavenworth, Kas. Ellsworth, La.

D. W. POWERS & CO.,

BANKERS,

Ellsworth, Kansas.

Transact a General Banking Business.

Particular

Collections from

Banks, Bankers & Merchants

RECEIVE OUR ESPECIAL ATTENTION, AND REMITTED FOR
PROMPTLY ON DAY OF PAYMENT, AT CURRENT
RATES OF EXCHANGE.

Refer to our Correspondents :

DONNELL, LAWSON & Co., Bankers, No. 4 Wall Street, New York City
ALLEN, HOFFMAN & Co., Bankers, St. Louis, Mo.

UNION NATIONAL BANK, Chicago, Ills.

FIRST NATIONAL BANK, Leavenworth, Kansas.

FIRST NATIONAL BANK, Kansas City, Mo.

MASTIN BANK, Kansas City, Mo.

M. GOLDSOLL,

Russell, Kansas.

M. GOLDSOLL & CO.,

Denison, Texas.

THE OLD RELIABLE HOUSE OF

M. GOLDSOLL,

WHOLESALE DEALER IN

Groceries, Provisions,

AND

DROVER’S CAMP & TRAIL OUTFITS

Ellsworth, Kas.

ALSO

Firearms Ammunition,

Clothing, Boots and Shoes,

Wagons, Harness & Saddlery

A COMPLETE STOCK OF ELEGANT

JEWELRY DIAMONDS,

WATCHES, CHAINS, &c.,&c.

WE WILL GIVE

Special Attention to Supplying

EVERY WANT OF

DROVERS AND STOCK RANCHMEN

IN WESTERN KANSAS.

Main St., Ellsworth, Kas.

THE

AT KANSAS CITY, MO.

IS THE

LARGEST ESTABLISHMENT

OF THE KIND WEST OF THE MISSISSIPPI.

KAIL COMMUNICATIONS EAST, WEST, NORTH M SODTH.

EVERY FACILITY IS AMPLY FURNISHED FOR •

Receiving, Yarding, Watering,

Feeding, Resting, Selling,

WEIGHING AN® SHIPPING

LIVE STOCK

OF ALL DESCRIPTIONS.

YARDS FOR CATTLE FLOORED AND COVERED PENS FOR
HOGS AND SHEEP AND GOOD BARNS FOR
HORSES AND MULES.

ansacting Stock Busine

expense, labor or pains wilj

KANSAS STOCK YARDS

THE LARGEST AND BEST POINT FOR CONCENTRATING LIVE
STOCK IN THE MISSOURI VALLEY.

JEROME D. SMITH.

Gen’l Supt.

A. B. MATTHEWS, Kansas City, Mo.

W. H. KINGSBERY, Late of Granbury, Texas.

J. M. HOLMSLEY, Camanche, Texas.
D. T. ALGER, Kansas City, Mo.

Matthews, Kingsbery & Co.

CommiHsion Merchants for the Sale of

LIVE STOCK.

KANSAS STOCK YARDS. \ ( NATIONAL STOCK YARDS,

Kansas City, Mo. j j East St. Louis, Ills.

We call the attention of Cattle Men to our special facilities for handling Cattle in Kansas City, St.
Louis and Eastern Markets.

Having had several years experience in

DRIVING, FEEDING AND SELLING,

we deem it no self praise to say that we understand the Cattle trade thoroughly in all its branches. We
have an extensive acquaintance with the Feeders o'f

Missouri, Kansas, Illinois, Iowa and
Nebraska.

We are prepared to handle Live Stock of any kind to advantage, being represented in

CHICAGO, PITTSBURG & BUFFALO

by Commission Houses of the highest standing for integrity and business capacity. Those who may entrust
their business to our care may rely upon our ability and determination to take care of the interests of our

REFERENCES:

The Mastin Bank, Kansas City, Mo., First National Bank, Kansas
City. Mo., D. O. Smart & Co., Bankers, Kansas City, Mo., Noah, Eby &
Co, Bankers, Coffey vill-e, Kas., Flint & Chamberlin, Bankers, Waco,
Texas, I. W. Phelps, Merchant, Ellsworth, Kas., P. J. Willis & Bro.,
Galveston. Texas, G. Van Winkle & Co., Bankers, Sherman, Texas,
Frost Bros., Com. Merchants, San Antonio, Texas, Loyd, Marklee &
Co., Bankers, Fort Worth, Texas.

Season of 1874

Jhe f

IRST

ATIONAL

|3ank

OF WICHITA

SOLICITS YOUR WICHITA BUSINESS.

DIRECTORS:

j. C. FRAKER.

J. W. KLDRIDGR.
J. R. MENEL.

W. A. THOMAS.

W j. HOBSON.

OFFICERS:

WF. DO A

General Banking Business

As heretofore, and will continue to offer

SPECIAL ni LIBERAL ADVANTAGES to tie STOCK TRADE.

^«omUhe“ ,0 C°me and “S and b"ng thCir Mi£h‘

A. A. HYDE, Cashier.

A. M. CLARK, Pres’t.,

of Clark & Co., Leavenworth.

SOL. H. KOHN, Vice Pres’t.,

WICHITA^©

CAPITAL, $100,000.

GENERAL

Banking and Collecting,

WICHITA, SEDGWICK COUNTY, KANSAS.

STATEMENT AT HEIGHT OF PANIC, NOVEMBER i, 1873.

RESOURCES,

. . 69

Exchange, . 19,427 6i)

trails and Discounts, . . .. . 70,977 99

House and Fixtures, . 8,275 22

Expenses and Taxes, . • • . 4,448 73

LIABILITIES.

#179,381 99

Capital and Surplus,
Deposits, .

#179,381

Kansas Pacific Railway,

The old Established and Popular

Texas Stock Route.

GRAZING GOOD, WATER PLENTIFUL, SHIPPING FACILITIES
PERFECT, YARDS FREE, RATES LOW.

Two Fa&T

STOCK EXPRESS TRAINS DAILY

FROM

Ellis, Russell, Ellsworth, Brookville,
Salina, Solomon and Abilene

Kansas City and Leavenworth,

Connecting with the following Roads:

ST. LOUIS, KANSAS CITY & NORTHERN; MISSOURI PACIFIC;
CHICAGO, ALTON & ST. LOUIS ; CHICAGO & ROCK
ISLAND; TOLEDO, WABASH & WESTERN ;
HANNIBAL & ST. JOSEPH,

AND

KANSAS CITY ST. JOE & COUNCIL BLUFFS.

The only route by which Shippers have the choice of the following Markets :

DENVER, COLORADO. RUSSELL, ELLSWORTH, LEAVENWORTH
KANSAS CITY, QUINCY, ST. LOUIS AND CHICAGO.

THE KANSAS PACIFIC RAILWAY

Colorado and New Mexico Stock.

Call upon S. R. AINSLIE, I

EDMUND S. BOWEN,

Gen’ I Supt.

T. F. OAKES,

Gen 'I Fr't Agent.

LEAVENWORTH, LAWRENCE & GALVESTON

RAILROAD LINE.

THE BEST, SHORTEST and CHEAPEST CATTLE ROUTE

This Road is rapidly becoming the favorite Cattle Route for Texas Stock, on account of its superior
Wantages over all other Lines.

IT IS THE SHORTEST ROUTE

FROM THE

DEAD LINE TO KANSAS CITY,

where more Texas Cattle are sold than at any other market in the country. The SHORTEST haul to¬
gether with the excellent condition of the track, enables this road to run Cattle into Kansas City in a shorter
time and in much better condition than any other route.

The new Trail to Coffeyville,

Affords excellent grazing and watering facilities. There is also a fine range immediately south of Coffey¬
ville, where large herds can be kept until ready for shipment.

Every convenience is prepared by the Railroad Company to load Cattle rapidly, at Coffeyville Stock
Yards, which are amply adequate for large shipments.

THREE

RELIABLE BANKING HOUSES

At Coffeyville, are prepared to furnish all necessary Banking facilities to the DROV ER AND STOCK
DEALER.

The L., L. Sc Gr. It. R. Ooiiipauy

Promise to ship Stock at as low rates as any any other line, and GUARANTEE that the rate from
Coffeyville to Kansas City

Shall not exceed Twenty-Five Dollars Per Car During the
Season.

SHIPPERS BY THIS ROUTE HAVE THE CHOICE OF THE THREE
GREAT CATTLE ROUTES IN THE WEST,

Kansas City, Saint Louis and Chicago.

Through Bills of Lading will be given to

B. S. HEMNING,

Gen’ I Supt.

either Place.

CHAS. B. PECK,

Gen'l Fr't Ag t

Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe

RAILRORD

FROM

ATCHISON, KAS. TO GRANADA, COL

SHORT LINE Between MISSOURI RIVER

AND

Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona.

THE ROAD BEING NEW— WITH GOOD LINE— EASY GRADES,
AND EQUIPPED WITH FIRST CLASS ROLLING STOCK AND
POWER, OFFERS SUPERIOR ADVANTAGES TO
SHIPPERS AND TRAVELERS.

The Live Stock Business

IS MADE A SPECIALTY. ROOMY AND SUBSTANTIAL YARDS
ARE LOCATED AT CONVENIEN I' DISTANCES, AND
EXPERIENCED STOCKMEN ON HAND
TO LOAD STOCK.

AT GRANADA, GREAT BEND, NEWTON AND WICHITA

GOOD STOCK SCALES ARE PROVIDED

Large Resting and Feeding Yards

HUTCHINSON,

WITH GOOD ARRANGEMENTS FOR FEEDING, AND CLEAR
WATER RUNNING THROUGH THEM, ARE PROVI¬
DED FOR

COLORADO CATTLE.

Large Sale Yards at Atchison.

THE RATES TO

Atchison, Leavenworth and Kansas City

ALWAYS THE SAME,

And are guarandteed to be as low as by any other Line from corresponding points. 49-Stock in
Train Loads will be run extra, and will receive special attention.

For Particulars, Address

G. H. NETTLETON, Supt., M. L. SARGENT, Gen. Frt. Agt.,

Topeka, Kas. Topeka, Kas.

STOCKWELL & HAMILTON, Stock Agts., Atchison, Kas.

PIONEER OLD RELIABLE

Live Stock Route,

Hannibal & St. Joseph

AND

CHICAGO, BURLINGTON &QUINCY RAILROADS

ACKNOWLEDGED TO BE THE

Cheapest, Shortest and most Reliable

LIVE STOCK ROUTE

It is a well known fact that Stock delivered at

UNION STOCK YARDS, CHICAGO, BY THESE ROADS, SELL AT
HIGHER PRICES THAN STOCK DELIVERED THERE
BY ANY OTHER LINES LEADING FROM
KANSAS CITY.

The reason for this is obvious, when it is considered that Stock by this Route is tllirly-viKilt hoars
only in trnuNit belnmi linnsiiM City and Chiciiito, nrriTing; nt U nion Slock
Yards in lime for I hr morning market, which i«t conceded toll-' the Best.

CHICAGO COMMISSION FIRMS INVARIABLY ADVISE
THEIR CUSTOMERS TO

COJISIGJV THEM CHICAGO SHIPMENTS Via

The Hannibal & Saint Joseph,

AND

Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroads.

Stock carelessly handled while in transit, or in loading and unloading, is liable to be injured and
bruised, which shows plainly when dressed, and butchers must sell it at reduced prices. The facilities

The Hannibal & Si Joseph and Chicago, Burlington & Quincy

RAILROADS

Hare and the care that is taken to avoid injuring or bruising Stock, IS KNOWN TO tHKAG*
RI'TCHEIU, hcl.cc they PKGI'EK PURCHASING STOCK BROUGHT TO

M&BMET BY TMESE LIMES.

For a number of years

The Hannibal and Saint Joseph

AND

TOLEDO, WABASH & WESTERN RAILROADS

have been the

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